Setting

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 4234 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Mrs Ellie Hextall Head of Academy Haven High Academy Marian Road Boston Lincolnshire PE21 9HB

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Academy

Following my visit to your school on 25 April 2017, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. Thank you for the help you gave me and for the time you made available to discuss the actions you are taking to improve the school since the most recent section 5 inspection.

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Academy

The visit was the first monitoring inspection since the school was judged to require improvement following the section 5 inspection in November 2016. It was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

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Academy

Senior leaders and governors are taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement identified at the last section 5 inspection in order to become a good school.

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Academy

The school should take further action to:

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Academy

 review the action plan to identify the leaders, including representatives of the governing body, who will evaluate the impact of each action and, separately, the outcomes against which they will measure this impact  embed the current improvements in the quality of teaching to ensure that all groups of pupils, particularly the most able, make at least the progress that they should in their learning  ensure that pupils across all year groups benefit from the independent careers advice and guidance that the school is now providing.

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Evidence

During the inspection, I held meetings with you, other senior leaders, subject leaders of English, mathematics, science and modern foreign languages, and leaders who have responsibility for attendance and behaviour. I also met with two members of the governing body, the chief executive officer of the multi-academy trust of which the school is a member, and a representative of the local authority. I visited eight lessons, across a range of subjects, in Years 9, 10 and 11. I conducted these visits with the deputy headteacher who has responsibility for teaching and learning. I observed pupils’ behaviour between lessons and at breaktime, during which time I spoke with pupils. I evaluated the school improvement plan and analysed documents relating to achievement, attendance and governance. I checked the school’s single central register.

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Context

Since the previous inspection, the school has employed an additional attendance officer, four academic progress coordinators and a maths specialist who provides support for the most able pupils in this subject.

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Main findings

You and your senior leaders have taken swift action to respond to the areas for improvement that inspectors identified at the previous inspection. Your action plan provides appropriate strategies to improve the quality of teaching, increase pupils’ attendance and raise pupils’ achievement. You rightly recognise that some of the actions contained within this plan lack the necessary detail to enable you to measure their impact sufficiently. You also recognise that it is not always clear who is monitoring the implementation of the actions. You have agreed to review your action plan and resubmit this to me by 26 May 2017.

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Main findings

You have been quick to introduce a revised system for teachers to record and check the progress that pupils make. This new system provides the pupils with clear information about how well they are achieving compared with their challenging targets. Furthermore, this assessment system provides you and your leaders with a more secure understanding of the progress that pupils are making across all subjects. Through this, you are able to ensure that pupils receive the necessary support where they are not making sufficient progress.

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Main findings

You have increased the expectations you place on your subject leaders for monitoring the quality of teaching in their subject areas and checking on pupils’ achievement. For example, subject leaders undertake regular visits to lessons. They conduct these with senior leaders and with their deputy subject leaders to ensure that subject leaders’ assessment of the quality of teaching is accurate. Subject leaders also look at pupils’ books to check the accuracy of teachers’ assessment of learning, the quality of the presentation of work and the level of pupils’ achievement. Where subject leaders identify that pupils are not making sufficient progress, they work closely with the relevant teachers to support them and secure the necessary improvements. In undertaking these checks, your subject leaders are now holding teachers to account more effectively.

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Main findings

Teachers receive regular, weekly training on teaching and learning. This training provides them with opportunities to consider how they plan lessons to meet pupils’ individual needs, and how they ask questions to check on pupils’ learning. Through this training, you and your leaders have raised the profile of the most able pupils to ensure that teachers plan appropriately challenging activities for them. You have also created a working group to develop and share with teachers strategies they can use to ensure that the most able pupils make good progress. This focus on improving the quality of teaching has led to better achievement in many subject areas, including in English and mathematics, in most year groups. You recognise that there is still much to do to ensure that all pupils, including the most able, make at least the progress they should across the full range of subjects they study.

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Main findings

You have taken robust action to make pupils and parents aware of the importance of attending school regularly. You have been tenacious in ensuring that parents understand how pupils’ regular attendance at school improves their chances of achieving well. You have also challenged and supported those pupils who are regularly absent from school. For example, the staff who monitor pupils’ attendance now undertake unannounced visits to the pupils’ homes when they have a concern about their attendance. The staff undertake these visits to check on the pupils’ welfare, and to support them to attend school. There has also been an increase in the number of meetings that your staff hold with parents whose children are regularly absent from school. Because of these actions, the proportion of pupils who are absent from school, including those who are regularly absent, is now beginning to reduce.

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Main findings

You have increased the opportunities that pupils have to learn about their next steps when they leave school. You have recently put on a careers fair for the pupils in Years 10 and 11 to ensure that they understand the education and employment opportunities that are available to them. You have also begun to work with an external organisation to provide pupils with impartial careers advice and guidance. However, this advice is not currently available to pupils in all year groups.

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Main findings

Members of the governing body continue to have a precise understanding of the quality of the school’s provision. The governors provide all leaders with appropriate levels of support and challenge. They regularly check on the actions that you and your leaders are taking to improve the quality of teaching and pupils’ achievement. The governors have also ensured that there is capacity within your staff to bring about this drive to improve the school’s provision. For example, they have supported the appointment of four academic progress coordinators who work closely with pupils to check on their achievement. The governors have demonstrated that they continue to be a strength of the school.

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External support

You work closely with the Lincolnshire Teaching School Alliance (LTSA) to provide your staff with effective support and training, including training related to developing leadership skills. Your subject leaders attend subject network meetings that the LTSA runs. These meetings are effective in allowing these leaders to learn from the best practice of other schools. Your subject leaders have also worked closely with leaders from schools within the LTSA to review and improve the quality of teaching in some subject areas of your school, including in science.

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External support

You work closely with other local schools, particularly those schools that are similar to your own. This enables you to learn from their practice and to implement strategies that you know have been successful elsewhere. You also continue to work with the local authority, which provides you with an external evaluation of the quality of the school’s provision.

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External support

This range of external support has been effective in helping you and your leaders to improve the quality of your school’s provision.

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External support

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Lincolnshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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