New Park School

New Park School Off Green Lane, Patricroft, Eccles M30 0RW

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Inspection dates 30 November–1 December 2016

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Inadequate

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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Safeguarding arrangements are a serious cause for concern.  Vulnerable pupils are at risk of harm due to delays in reporting serious concerns about the welfare of pupils to the appropriate authorities.  Leaders, including governors, cannot be certain that all pupils are safe, especially pupils in key stages 3 and 4, because they do not know the whereabouts of all pupils.  Leaders do not know which pupils are on the school site at break and lunchtime because no records are kept on this for key stage 4 pupils. This presents a serious risk to pupils’ welfare.  Some key stage 4 pupils, given permission by parents or carers to be off-site at break and lunchtime, are potentially unsafe.  Teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve are often too low. As a result, work set is often too easy and fails to challenge pupils.  Pupils’ learning is disrupted in key stages 3 and 4 and consequently they make slow progress

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

because pupils spend large amounts of time away from school due to absence or exclusion.  Not all pupils who take part in off-site alternative provision achieve suitable vocational qualifications.  Leaders do not check well enough that all staff follow procedures correctly, such as checking on pupils who are absent or late. Leaders, including governors, have not done enough to make sure the good standard of education seen at the last inspection continues. Their lack of action has led to the school’s decline.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Effective teaching in key stage 2 classes contributes well to pupils making at least expected progress from their starting points.  Key stage 2 pupils are safe. Behaviour is managed well and pupils attend school regularly. As a result, learning improves.  Parents greatly appreciate the support provided for them through parenting classes.  The curriculum effectively meets the needs of most pupils. Pupils enjoy personal, social and health education, alternative provision courses and work experience.  Teachers know their pupils very well. Support plans are highly personalised and tailored to individual pupils’ needs.  Leaders, working together with outside agencies, provide strong support for families.

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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?

 Take urgent action to improve the school’s arrangements for safeguarding pupils, by: – making sure that all disclosures made by pupils, or concerns about a pupil suffering harm, are reported without delay to the appropriate authority such as the local authority designated officer – reviewing procedures for checking on the welfare of all pupils who are absent to ensure that their whereabouts are quickly established, particularly for those who are the most vulnerable – revising the school’s policy of allowing pupils to leave the school site at break and lunchtime to ensure a clear record is kept of who leaves, at what time and when they return – revising the school’s policy of recording attendance and lateness to lessons so that teachers know the whereabouts of pupils who are on the school site.  Improve teaching so that all pupils are allowed to meet and, where possible, exceed, their targets, by: – making sure that teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve are high

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

enough and that these are reflected in their planning for pupils’ learning – giving pupils work which provides them with sufficient challenge – reducing the disruption caused by pupils leaving the site during the day.  Improve attendance and reduce exclusions so that the trajectory of improvement continues and the school’s performance meets or exceeds that seen in other special schools. An external review of governance is recommended to identify how this aspect of leadership can be improved.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

 Leaders and governors are failing in their responsibility to make sure that all reasonable steps are taken to protect secondary-age pupils from harm. Leaders regularly update their written policies, but they do not check with sufficient rigour that procedures are correctly followed by all staff and so too much is left to chance with regard to pupils’ safety.  Attendance is well below that seen in other maintained and non-maintained special schools and pupils are frequently excluded from school. A high proportion of secondary-age pupils are spending large amounts of time away from school either as a result of absence or exclusion.  Leaders use illegal exclusion as a strategy to manage pupils’ behaviour. Parents are requested to keep children at home to ‘cool off’ when their behaviour becomes unmanageable but this is not recorded as an exclusion.  Leaders do not prepare secondary-age pupils well enough for the next stage in their

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

education. The proportion of pupils who go on to education, employment or training when they leave school is well below that seen nationally.  Leaders do not do enough to help pupils gain the entry qualifications they need for college or further training. Not all pupils who attend off-site alternative provision are entered for accredited qualifications in their vocational course of study.  Insufficient information was provided to inspectors on the use or impact of the Year 7 literacy and numeracy funding. No primary physical education and sports premium was allocated to the school in 2015/2016. However, the school has now received notification of this funding for 2016/17 and is planning how to use it.  The school’s pupil premium strategy identifies clearly the main barriers to learning experienced by eligible pupils and identifies an effective range of support to help these pupils.  Primary-age pupils are kept safe and are well supported by teachers and teaching

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

assistants who work with them in the two primary classrooms. As a result, their behaviour improves, they attend school regularly and they achieve well.  Leaders know individual pupils very well, as evidenced by detailed case studies which show a good understanding of the main barriers to learning experienced by pupils. Leaders engage the support of a wide range of external agencies to make sure these very vulnerable pupils receive the help they need.  Pupils experience a broad and rich curriculum which has a good balance of different activities, but with appropriate priority given to the development of literacy and numeracy skills. The personal, social and health education (PSHE) programme helps pupils to understand better the dangers of drugs misuse, sexual health, keeping safe when using the internet or social media and an awareness of British values including law and order.  Parents and families of pupils greatly appreciate the support they receive from the

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

school. A group of parents who met with an inspector explained the support they had received for parenting skills through a self-help group which is helping them to better manage their children’s behaviour at home.

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Governance of the school

 After a long period of stability, a number of changes have very recently been made to the membership of the governing body including the appointment of a new chair of the governing body and other new members.  Governors are not aware of the risks to pupils’ safety and well-being caused by school leaders. Too much trust has been placed in an external report on the quality of safeguarding without challenging the points made.  Although governors have a good understanding of the difference being made by pupil premium funding, leaders fail to give them any information on how the Year 7 literacy and numeracy funding is used for pupils who are eligible for this support.  The school did not receive any physical education or sport premium in 2015/16 to support pupils in its primary phase; this was not challenged by governors.  Governors know what information is used to inform leaders’ judgements on the quality

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Safeguarding

 Safeguarding arrangements are not effective because the school’s arrangements for making sure secondary pupils are safe give serious cause for concern.  Pupils are placed at risk of serious harm because leaders’ actions, following a disclosure made by a pupil, are too slow. Procedures for reporting a recent safeguarding concern to the local authority designated officer for safeguarding, or the police, were unacceptably delayed.  Pupils’ absences are not checked quickly enough and with sufficient rigour for leaders to be confident that vulnerable pupils are safe when they are not in school. Initial contact with parents or carers is slow and attendance officers do not carry out further follow-up if they fail to receive a reply. Pupils are therefore at risk of harm.  Leaders do not know which pupils are on the school site over break and lunchtime. Pupils in key stage 4 are allowed to leave the school site if they wish, and have

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Safeguarding

parents’ or carers’ permission to do so, at break and lunchtime. No record is kept by leaders to show which pupils leave the school site, the time they leave, or the time they return. This presents a serious threat to pupils’ safety in the event of a fire.  Pupils told inspectors that some secondary-age pupils go off the school site to take illegal substances. Leaders claim that pupils are supervised when they go off-site, but pupils stated this is not always the case, especially when several groups of pupils leave the school site.  Attendance at lessons was not recorded during the inspection. Teachers told inspectors they were not sure of the whereabouts of some secondary-age pupils who may have left the school site without permission.  Alternative provision trainers are unclear about what time to use as the final cut-off before a pupil is recorded as either absent or late. Trainers notify the school if these

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Safeguarding

very vulnerable pupils do not arrive for their alternative provision course, but this may be too late to prevent harm to a pupil.  Staff have only very recently been trained in the latest guidance on safeguarding, despite this guidance being published three months ago. Leaders have been slow to act on this information.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

 Teachers’ expectations as to what pupils are capable of achieving are often too low. Work set does not consistently build on what pupils can already do. Work is therefore not sufficiently challenging for pupils who are not routinely expected to think hard about their work. Consequently, they learn little that is new.  Worksheets planned by teachers sometimes restrict the amount that pupils can write, leading to pupils writing with limited detail or being dissuaded from writing more creative responses.  Low-attaining pupils in mathematics are not supported well enough to help them to improve their understanding of number when carrying out column addition. Practical equipment to support pupils’ understanding is available in school but this is unused because staff have not yet received training on how to use it.  Teaching assistants routinely leave lessons to try to locate pupils in key stages 3 and 4

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

who appear to be absent. This means that pupils in class who need their support are not benefiting from this additional help. Pupils’ learning is therefore disrupted.  The quality of support provided by teaching assistants varies. Some teaching assistants are too keen to tell pupils the answers or to tell pupils what to write. When this happens, pupils do little work for themselves and rely on this additional support.  Weak readers in both primary and secondary phases are well supported by teaching assistants who have been trained in using phonics. They use their skills well to help weak readers to improve their reading.  Pupils are assessed when they start in the school. This information is used well to provide a reliable baseline for teachers to check if they are making rapid enough progress to make up for learning time lost due to exclusion or absence.  Assessment is also used well by teachers who identify gaps in learning resulting from

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

pupils missing work due to frequent exclusions or absences. Most teachers are skilled in planning highly personalised interventions or additional support to help to fill these gaps.  Pupils told inspectors how much they enjoy their PSHE lessons because teachers make these lessons fun and ‘interactive’ through planning interesting resources which capture pupils’ interest and encourage them to learn.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is inadequate.  Safeguarding arrangements for pupils in key stages 3 and 4 are weak. Written procedures to make sure pupils are safe are largely ineffective because they are used inconsistently by staff, including leaders.  Serious concerns about the welfare of pupils are not always reported to the appropriate authorities immediately, although this is clearly stated to be the correct procedure in the school’s policies.  Pupils in key stage 4 are not sufficiently aware of the risks to their safety caused by them leaving the school site at break and lunchtime.  Careers advice and guidance are provided for pupils in key stage 4 through their meetings with a careers adviser, but pupils do not know enough about apprenticeships or how they can make progress from their alternative provision or work placements. Pupils in Year 9 were unable to recall any careers guidance they have received.

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Personal development and welfare

 Pupils in alternative provision have a very good understanding of how to keep themselves safe. A group of boys in a construction environment talked confidently about the need for safety footwear and high-visibility jackets. They demonstrated safe handling of heavy and bulky items and the safe use of tools in the workplace.  Pupils are safe when they are on the school site. They are well supervised at all times, including while taking part in forest school activities. Pupils in key stage 2 have a good understanding of risk, such as fire awareness. This was demonstrated well during a scheduled fire practice.  Pupils’ social and emotional needs are well met through a range of school-based support provided for pupils who need this help, in addition to support from outside agencies. This includes various types of therapy, peer mentoring, help for emotional literacy and self-help strategies for pupils.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils requires improvement.  Attendance is low, but is improving. The proportion of pupils who are frequently absent is much higher than that of other maintained and non-maintained special schools.  Exclusions remain high, but are reducing. The proportion of pupils who are excluded from school continues to be far higher than that seen in other maintained and non- maintained special schools.  Behaviour of pupils in key stages 3 and 4 varies because it is not always managed consistently well by staff.  Teachers do not intervene quickly enough to uphold classroom expectations for behaviour in key stages 3 and 4. Pupils were heard repeatedly swearing in lessons, which disrupted the learning of others. Some teachers failed to restrict mobile phone use during lessons.  Teachers do not follow the school’s behaviour policy by escalating sanctions, even though some pupils continued with their inappropriate behaviour.

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Behaviour

 Lateness to lessons is not recorded by teachers. Pupils say they receive a late detention if they return to school late after break or lunchtime but there is inconsistency in interpretation as to what constitutes a ‘late detention’ by teachers. Some pupils who are late therefore go unpunished.  Behaviour of pupils in key stage 2 is, overall, managed very well by staff. An atmosphere of calm prevails and both of the primary classrooms provide an environment which is conducive to learning. Pupils listen well and their attention is re- focused when requested by teachers and other adults who support learning.  Behaviour support plans for pupils are detailed and regularly reviewed. This helpful information provides all staff with useful strategies to support pupils in managing their behaviour.  Risk assessments are in place for all pupils, which are regularly updated. There is a clear and shared understanding among staff of the main difficulties experienced by

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Behaviour

pupils. As a result, staff at this school know pupils well and know how to help them.  Pupils’ behaviour in alternative provision is well managed. Incidents of poor behaviour are rare because pupils enjoy their alternative provision and want to succeed there.

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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

 Progress is slow for pupils in key stages 3 and 4. This is confirmed by work seen in pupils’ English and mathematics books.  Disadvantaged pupils at key stages 3 and 4 make far slower progress than that of other pupils nationally. However, there is no distinguishable difference in the achievements of disadvantaged pupils compared with others in the school.  At key stage 4, pupils are entered for far fewer qualifications than is the case nationally. Although pupils study a range of vocational subjects in their off-site alternative provision, very few of these lead to recognised qualifications beyond literacy and numeracy skills.  Eight pupils in the secondary phase receive home tuition; for some, this is in addition to work experience and alternative provision. Pupils receiving home tuition have a narrower curriculum compared with other pupils in the school. They are mainly supported in improving their literacy and numeracy skills but little else.

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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

 Standards in mathematics across the school are not as strong as in English. A wide range of topics is taught but pupils have restricted opportunities to think more deeply about mathematics or to make sure concepts are fully grasped, or mastered.  Pupils start in the school with much lower starting points than seen nationally, typically due to periods of time spent out of education. Pupils usually have a long history of repeated exclusions and disrupted education from their mainstream schools.  In key stage 2, pupils make at least expected progress from their starting points in English. Pupils who read to an inspector did so fluently and were able to make inferences from their reading, showing good comprehension skills. In writing, low- attaining key stage 2 pupils construct sentences using accurate punctuation and spelling and write in a way to grasp the interest of the reader.

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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

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Email address newparkhigh.specialschool@salford.gov.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 24 April 2013

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Information about this school

 The school provides specialist education for pupils who have social, emotional and mental health difficulties. Virtually all pupils have an education, health and care plan, or a statement of special educational needs.  Since the school was last inspected, an additional key stage has been added and the school now admits pupils from Years 3 to 11. Key stage 2 has, therefore, not previously been inspected.  Although the school has grown in size since the last inspection, it continues to be much smaller than the average-sized school. There are 16 pupils in key stage 2, taught in a separate building from the 75 pupils in key stages 3 and 4. The two buildings are about two miles apart.  The proportion of pupils supported by pupil premium funding is well above average. Almost all pupils are of White British heritage.  The school population is much less stable than that seen nationally because pupils typically start in any year group and many successfully return to mainstream education

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Information about this school

before completing their education at the school.  Twenty-four pupils attend alternative or off-site provision for between one to five days, with some attending more than one provider. The providers used by the school include: City West Housing Trust, Redbox Training, Incredible Education, Brighter Futures, Bee Hive Wilkinson Welding Academy and Salford City College. Some pupils take part in work experience placements.  Eleven pupils receive education other than at school. Three pupils are dual registered but educated full-time in other mainstream schools. Eight pupils are home educated.  The school does not meet requirements on the publication of information about key stage 2 and key stage 4 performance information and Year 7 literacy and numeracy catch-up premium.  The school did not meet the government’s floor standards in 2015. The floor standards set the minimum expectations for progress and attainment in key stage 2 and key

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Information about this inspection

 This inspection was carried out with no notice given to the school because of concerns about the quality of leadership and management of the school and the contribution made by the school to the well-being of pupils.  Inspectors observed teaching and learning in several lessons and made short visits to other classes. All classes were seen during the inspection, including both primary age classes, separate ‘master-classes’ and other intervention groups. Pupils’ work in books and files was checked and inspectors heard pupils read aloud in class.  An inspector visited one of the alternative providers used by the school to see three boys at work on construction activities. Another inspector observed an off-site trip linked to pupils’ forest school work.  Meetings were held with senior and other leaders, the recently appointed chair of the governing body, one other governor and a representative from the local authority.

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Information about this inspection

Reports from external reviews of the school were scrutinised.  An inspector met with a group of parents attending a parenting class to gather their views on the quality of education and the support provided for their children by the school.  Behaviour of pupils was observed at break and lunchtime, during pupils’ arrival at school at the start of the day and during breakfast club activities. A separate formal meeting was held with a group of five pupils from Years 9 to 11 to find out their views on the school.  A wide range of other documentation was also considered, including information available on the school website and information on pupils’ achievements, attendance and behaviour. The school’s self-evaluation summary and action plan were examined along with records on the school’s arrangements for keeping pupils safe. A detailed review of attendance information was also carried out.

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Inspection team

Denah Jones, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Mark Williams Her Majesty’s 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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