Hamilton College

Hamilton College Keyham Lane West, Leicester, Leicestershire LE5 1RT

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Inadequate

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Across all aspects of the school’s provision, leaders, including governors, have taken insufficient action to maintain the school’s previously high standards.  For some time, achievement has been too low across a range of subjects, including English, mathematics and science, particularly at key stage 4.  The proportion of most-able pupils, including the most able disadvantaged, who make the progress they should, is too low.  Disadvantaged pupils across all years do not make the progress they should.  The support that pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities receive is inconsistent. Many of these pupils make insufficient progress in their leaning.  The quality of teaching is inconsistent across different subjects and year groups. Subject leaders’ attempts to improve the quality of teaching and raise pupils’ achievement have had limited impact.  The information that senior leaders receive

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

about pupils’ achievements has not enabled them to challenge quickly enough the subjects that underperform.  The curriculum does not enable the most able pupils to study an appropriate range of subjects.  Behaviour is inadequate. The conduct of some pupils around the school site is poor. Teachers are not consistent in challenging such behaviour.  Too many pupils engage in low-level disruption in the classroom, which disturbs the learning of others.  Leaders’ use of the pupil premium funding and the Year 7 literacy and numeracy catch-up funding has been insufficiently effective.  Governors do not have a good enough understanding of the quality of the school’s provision. They have been unable to challenge leaders well enough and hold them to account over the quality of teaching and pupils’ achievements. The school has the following strengths

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The recent appointment of the acting principal has brought with it a new drive for improvement, which staff recognise and value.  The support that pupils who are regularly absent from school receive is becoming increasingly effective. The proportion of pupils who are regularly absent, although still above national levels, is reducing.

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Full report

In accordance with section 44(1) of the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the capacity of leaders at all levels, including governors, to secure the rapid improvement in the school’s provision for all pupils by ensuring that: – the skills of all subject leaders to monitor the quality of teaching, learning and assessment are secure – the systems used to check on pupils’ progress yield accurate, helpful and timely information – the provision for those pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is strong – the curriculum meets the needs of all pupils, particularly the most able pupils, including the most able disadvantaged pupils – leaders’ review of their use of additional government funding, including pupil premium and Year 7 catch-up funding, focuses precisely on the impact of the support that eligible pupils receive – the governors hold senior leaders to account more effectively in relation to pupils’ outcomes and leaders’ use of additional government funding.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve pupils’ outcomes by ensuring that: – there is rapid improvement in the achievement of those groups of pupils who have previously underachieved, including: boys; disadvantaged pupils; the most able pupils, including the most able disadvantaged; and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities – pupils’ outcomes rapidly improve in those subjects where there has previously been underperformance, particularly in English, mathematics and science.  Improve the quality of teaching by ensuring that: – all teachers plan activities that provide sufficient support and challenge for all, including the most able and the most able disadvantaged pupils, to enable them to make the progress they should – teachers and pupils have high expectations with regard to the quantity and quality of work that pupils produce in the lesson time available.  Improve pupils’ behaviour and their respect for all members of the school community

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

by ensuring that all staff are consistent in challenging unacceptable behaviour.  Further embed strategies to reduce the levels of pupil absence, so that pupils’ attendance is at least in line with national levels. An external review of pupil premium spending should be undertaken to assess how this aspect of leadership may be improved. An external review of the school governance should be undertaken to assess how this aspect of leadership may be improved.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

 Senior leaders and governors have taken insufficient action to maintain the high standards of the school’s provision identified at the last inspection. Due to this, there has been a decline in the quality of teaching and in the achievement of all pupils, including: boys; disadvantaged pupils; the most able pupils, including the most able disadvantaged; and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.  Senior leaders’ review of their use of additional government funding, including pupil premium and Year 7 literacy and numeracy catch-up funding, is not effective. They have not undertaken thorough reviews of the impact of the support that eligible pupils receive through this funding. Consequently, senior leaders have been unable to identify and resolve quickly enough those occasions where the support is not enabling pupils to make rapid progress. Too few of the pupils who are eligible to receive this support,

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

including disadvantaged pupils, make the progress they should.  The leadership of the quality of teaching is inadequate. Subject leaders have not ensured that teachers plan activities that meet the different needs of their pupils and enable them to make progress in their learning. Consequently, too few pupils, including the most able pupils, make sufficient progress.  The leadership of achievement is inadequate. The systems by which senior leaders check on pupils’ progress have not enabled them to identify accurately those subjects where pupils are underachieving. Consequently, senior leaders have not been able to act quickly enough to resolve issues of underperformance.  For some time, the curriculum has been too narrow, particularly at key stage 4. This has prevented pupils, particularly the most able, from studying an appropriate range of subjects. This, in turn, has prevented them from achieving as highly as they should.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

Senior leaders rightly recognise that their recent attempts to broaden the curriculum to meet these pupils’ needs at key stage 4 have not fully resolved this issue.  Some aspects of the curriculum that enable pupils to secure their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development are strong. For example, leaders have taken effective action to ensure that pupils value the multi-ethnic nature of the school’s pupil cohort. However, behaviour in lessons and around the school site indicates that not all pupils recognise the need to show respect to members of their school community, including adults and other pupils.  The leadership of the provision that supports the pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities has not ensured that these pupils receive effective support. These pupils do not achieve as highly as they should, particularly at key stage 4.  The school has received wide-ranging support from the local authority in order to

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

improve the quality of provision. However, this support has not been effective in improving the quality of teaching and raising pupils’ achievement. Recently, the local authority has arranged for close support for the school from a local, successful, secondary school, Soar Valley College. This support is having a positive effect, particularly on developing the skills of leaders at all levels. This support is new and has had little time to embed.  Leaders have provided a wide range of extra-curricular activities to enable pupils to extend their experience beyond the curriculum. These opportunities enable pupils to develop their understanding of the world around them, including understanding cultural diversity. They also enable the most able to explore the academic interests that they are unable to pursue in the school due to the narrow curriculum, particularly in science.  The recent appointment of an acting principal has introduced a new drive to improve

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

the quality of teaching and raise pupils’ achievement. The principal, for example, has introduced regular training for staff to improve the quality of their teaching. She has also reviewed the systems by which leaders manage teachers’ performance. The staff who inspectors met with said that they have confidence in the new acting principal and the actions she is taking. However, it is too early to measure the impact of these actions on improving the quality of teaching and raising pupils’ achievement.  The school may not appoint newly qualified teachers.

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Governance of the school

 Since the previous inspection, governors have taken insufficient action to reverse the decline that has taken place in the quality of the school’s provision.  Governors have not been effective in holding senior leaders to account. They have provided senior leaders with insufficient challenge regarding the quality of teaching and pupils’ achievement.  Governors have not been effective in holding leaders to account for the use of pupil premium and Year 7 literacy and numeracy catch-up funding. For some time, governors have not been able to ensure that leaders have used this funding effectively.  Governors recognise their previous shortcomings in challenging senior leaders. Governors have begun to undertake action to ensure that they are more effective in their role. However, this action is only very recent. Currently, it is not possible to measure the impact of this action on governors’ capacity to be effective in ensuring

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.  The leaders who have responsibility for safeguarding work hard to support pupils who are experiencing difficulties. They take timely and appropriate action where they have a concern related to a pupil’s welfare. This includes contacting local agencies. Leaders work closely and tenaciously with external agencies to ensure that pupils receive the support they require.  All staff are aware of their responsibility to ensure that pupils are safe. Staff receive regular safeguarding training, including training related to extremism and radicalisation, and female genital mutilation. They are aware of the different types of abuse and the signs to look for. They understand the action they must take where they have a concern about a pupil’s welfare, including where they are concerned about another adult’s conduct towards a pupil.  The designated safeguarding lead is aware of those issues in the local community that

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Safeguarding

may affect the welfare of pupils at the school. He has ensured that staff have received training in relation to these issues.  Pupils receive wide-ranging opportunities to learn how to be safe, both through the curriculum and through assemblies. For example, the police recently presented an assembly on staying safe. Pupils also regularly learn about how to stay safe online.  Those pupils who inspectors met with said that they have people they can go to if they have any concerns. They were confident that adults would listen to their concerns and take the appropriate action.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

 The quality of teaching, learning and assessment is inadequate as there is too much variability in the quality of teaching across the school. Because of this, pupils have not achieved as highly as they should across a wide range of subjects, including English, mathematics and science, particularly at key stage 4.  Teachers do not plan effectively enough to provide activities that meet pupils’ needs. Often, teachers’ expectations of what pupils are capable of are too low, and the work they set pupils is too easy. On these occasions, pupils do not engage well with their learning and they do not make the progress that they should.  Teachers do not ensure that the most able pupils, including the most able disadvantaged pupils, complete activities that are suitably challenging. Consequently, too few of these pupils make the progress they should and achieve the higher grades that they are capable of by the end of key stage 4.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

 In too many lessons, low-level disruption prevents pupils from making the progress they should. Pupils from across all years who inspectors met with spoke of low-level disruption in a range of lessons preventing them from learning. This is particularly the case where pupils have teachers who are not their regular subject teachers. When observing lessons, inspectors saw pupils engaging in low-level disruption.  Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities do not always receive effective support from adults in the classroom to ensure that they are secure in their understanding. Consequently, too few of these pupils make the progress they should, particularly by the end of key stage 4.  Pupils who have fallen behind in their reading skills receive effective support to catch up. Furthermore, all pupils receive opportunities to read, including, for Year 7, regular visits to the school library. However, when pupils do engage in reading activities,

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

teachers do not ensure that pupils, particularly the most able, read books that extend their communication skills and understanding further.  Where learning is most effective, teachers have good relationships with pupils, and provide pupils with support to ensure that they make progress. Teachers ask pertinent questions to ensure that pupils are secure in their understanding. Furthermore, pupils pay careful attention when others are speaking. In a Year 11 lesson, for example, pupils discussed whether the police have too much power. Pupils listened to each other, and were able to reflect upon their own opinions as a result.  Recently, subject leaders have begun to work more closely to monitor the quality of teaching. This includes increasing the regularity with which they visit lessons and check on pupils’ work. However, it is too early to measure the impact of such work on raising pupils’ achievement within all years and across all subjects, particularly in English,

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is inadequate.  Too many pupils do not value their education. They engage in low-level disruption in lessons, which disturbs their own, and others’, learning.  Too many pupils fail to show sufficient respect to other people, including adults and other pupils in their school community. Pupils’ behaviour, including their low-level disruption in lessons and their conduct around the school site, indicates that not all pupils recognise the need to be respectful towards others.  Pupils receive wide-ranging opportunities to learn how to be safe, including being safe online.  Those pupils who inspectors met with said that they feel safe at the school. They said that they have staff they can speak with if they had concerns. They felt confident that staff would listen to them and take appropriate action. They said that bullying is rare,

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Personal development and welfare

but that where it does occur, there are staff who they could speak to who would take effective action.  The school’s personal, social, health and economic education programme and the wide range of extra-curricular activities provide pupils with effective opportunities to prepare for life in modern Britain. Pupils were appreciative of these opportunities.  Leaders regularly monitor the welfare of those pupils who are educated elsewhere. They work closely with the organisations that provide the pupils with education away from the school site, monitoring the pupils’ attendance and their behaviour.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is inadequate.  Too many pupils engage in low-level disruption in lessons, which prevents them, and others, from learning. Pupils from across all years who inspectors met spoke of such behaviour in lessons. They attributed it to the inconsistent way in which teachers implement the school’s behaviour management system.  Pupils’ behaviour and conduct around the school site, including in the school’s corridors and in outdoor spaces, is poor. Pupils could identify areas of the school where, during social times, behaviour is not appropriate. Inspectors observed inappropriate behaviour during social times, including altercations between pupils, pupils pushing and shoving, and pupils being rude to staff.  The proportion of pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, who received more than one exclusion from school last year was above national levels.  The proportion of pupils who are absent from school, including those who are regularly

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Behaviour

absent from school, has begun to decline and is now nearer to those levels found nationally. This is because of the increased support that these pupils receive from staff in the Reach centre.  Pupils who display challenging behaviours now receive more focused support from the Reach centre. For these pupils, this increased support has resulted in a sharp decline in the number of internal exclusions they have received so far this year.

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Outcomes for pupils Inadequate

 Outcomes for pupils are inadequate, as too many pupils in all years do not make the progress that they should across a wide range of subjects, including in English, mathematics and science.  Since the previous inspection, there has been a decline in pupils’ achievement at key stage 4, particularly in English, mathematics and science. Pupils continued to underachieve in these subjects at GCSE in 2016, with too few pupils making sufficient progress from their different starting points.  The school’s own performance information indicates that current Year 11 pupils, including boys and the most able pupils, continue to underachieve across a range of subjects, including English, mathematics and science.  Across all year groups, disadvantaged pupils do not make the progress they should. Disadvantaged pupils who completed their GCSE examinations in 2016 underachieved. Furthermore, disadvantaged pupils in key stage 3 in 2016 did not make sufficient

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Outcomes for pupils Inadequate

progress, particularly in Year 9. Disadvantaged pupils in Year 11 are currently underachieving. This is due to the insufficient support that these pupils receive, particularly through the school’s use of pupil premium funding.  Too many most-able pupils underachieve across a wide range of subjects, particularly at key stage 4. This is due to the lack of sufficiently challenging work they receive from teachers.  Due to the inconsistent support that they receive, pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities do not make the progress they should in their studies. The school’s own performance information indicates that pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities in Year 11 are currently underachieving.  At key stage 4, the school did not meet the government’s minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in English and mathematics in 2015.  Leaders of achievement have recently put into place a more precise system for

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Outcomes for pupils Inadequate

monitoring pupils’ progress. However, it is too early to be able to measure the impact of this new process on raising pupils’ achievement.

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School details

This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act.

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School details

Number of pupils on the school roll 1,179

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Email address enquiries@hamilton.leicester.sch.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 18–19 April 2013

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Information about this school

 The school does not meet requirements on the publication of information about pupil premium.  The school is larger than the average-sized secondary school.  The proportion of pupils who are from minority ethnic groups is much larger than average.  The number of pupils who are eligible for pupil premium funding is much higher than average.  The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is average. The proportion of pupils with a statement of special educational needs or with an education, health and care plan is lower than average.  The school works with 15 alternative providers, who provide pupils at the school with education at placements off the school site. These include: Axlr8, Braunstone Skills Centre, Carisbrooke Specialist Learning Centre, Children’s Hospital School, Cooke Learning, East Midlands School of Business Management, Educ8 Sport, Future Cycles,

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Information about this school

Future Skills, Leicester All Trades Training, Mere Lane Riding School, Style Studio, Trans4m, Pedestrian, and Waterfront. All of these providers are located in Leicester.  Since the previous inspection, the principal who was in place at the time of the inspection has left the school. His replacement has, subsequently, left. The acting principal was appointed in January 2016.  The school did not meet the government’s current floor standards for pupils’ achievement at key stage 4 in 2015.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 27 lessons, five of which were observed jointly with the subject leaders of English and mathematics. An inspector also undertook short visits to three lessons and observed an assembly.  An inspector listened to pupils read, including some most-able pupils.  Inspectors looked at pupils’ books from across all year groups, both within lessons and as a separate activity.  The lead inspector held a range of meetings, including with the acting principal and the associate principal, the achievement lead, the designated safeguarding lead, pastoral leaders, and members of the governing body, including the chair of governors. The lead inspector also met with a selection of the school’s staff and a representative of the local authority.  Other inspectors held meetings with the behaviour and achievement lead, the special educational needs coordinator, subject leaders, the designated teacher for children

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Information about this inspection

looked after and members of staff who have responsibility for: teaching and learning; careers advice and guidance; the curriculum; and the school spiritual, moral, social and cultural provision.  An inspector spoke with a representative from one of the alternative providers at which pupils from the school attend to be educated elsewhere.  Inspectors spoke with pupils from across all year groups, both formally and informally.  Inspectors observed pupils arriving at the school and leaving school. They observed pupils’ behaviour in lessons, between lessons and during breaktime and lunchtime.  Inspectors reviewed a range of documentation in relation to the school’s provision, including: school improvement, achievement, careers advice and guidance, the curriculum, safeguarding, and governance. The lead inspector checked the school’s single central register.  Inspectors considered the 19 responses to the Ofsted online questionnaire, Parent

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Information about this inspection

View. These were completed before the inspection commenced. The lead inspector also considered parental responses from the parent forum meeting which the school held recently.

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Inspection team

Simon Hollingsworth, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

John Edwards Ofsted Inspector guidance 'Raising concerns and making a complaint about Ofsted', which is available from Ofsted's website: www.gov.uk/government/publications/complaints-about-ofsted . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

In the report, 'disadvantaged pupils' refers to those pupils who attract government pupil premium funding: pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years and pupils in care or who left care through adoption or another formal route. www.gov.uk/pupil-premium-information-for-schools-and- alternative-provision-settings .

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Inspection team

You can use Parent View to give Ofsted your opinion on your child's school. Ofsted will use the information parents and carers provide when deciding which schools to inspect and when and as part of the inspection.

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Inspection team

You can also use Parent View to find out what other parents and carers think about schools in England. You can visit www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk , or look for the link on the main Ofsted website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted .

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Inspection team

achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children's services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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