Greenwood School

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

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Mr Dominic Coburn Headteacher Greenwood School Cabot Drive Dibden Southampton Hampshire SO45 5UG

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Short inspection of Greenwood School

Following my visit to the school on 26 April 2017 with Linda Jacobs, Ofsted Inspector, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be good in May 2013.

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Short inspection of Greenwood School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Your resilience, commitment and strength of vision have enabled you to maintain and improve the good-quality provision, while successfully leading the school through substantial changes in leadership, staffing and premises. Governors and staff support your determination that all Year 11 pupils attain qualifications so that they have choices and improved life chances. Staff value the way in which you listen to them and support them to improve their skills. Governors, pupils and staff comment enthusiastically on the community feel and the positive relationships between all at the school.

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Short inspection of Greenwood School

The school successfully provides a safe haven for pupils who have struggled in mainstream schools, for a variety of reasons, so that they can focus on learning and achieve their potential. Leaders and staff work together effectively to remove barriers caused by social, emotional, mental, health and behavioural challenges. As a result, pupils make good progress and do well over time. One pupil commented, ‘We do real GCSEs. People think we mess around all day but we work hard.’ Another pupil said, ‘If you come here and want to change, you will.’ Variances in outcomes are being tackled, such as for disadvantaged pupils.

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Short inspection of Greenwood School

The new learning environment has been planned carefully to provide attractive, interactive and useful learning spaces. Pupils learn to take responsibility for themselves and make sensible choices by having the freedom to move around the buildings and site. Good use is made of local forest areas adjacent to the school, where pupils are taught outdoor skills. There, pupils develop personal and social skills such as teamwork, communication, resilience and self-control through working together to solve problems. The goats and ducks which are kept on the site enable pupils to take responsibility and care for the animals. As a result, pupils make good progress in their personal skills, although these outcomes are not recorded as systematically as academic gains.

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Short inspection of Greenwood School

Governors provide effective challenge and support for you and other leaders. Bringing a range of relevant experience to the management committee, they ask useful questions and work with you to improve the school. Governors have a good understanding of pupils’ progress and hold you to account for pupils’ achievements. However, some of the good work carried out by governors and leaders is not recorded as well as it could be. For example, minutes of meetings, monitoring of teaching and analysis of behaviour incidents do not reflect the effective work that is carried out.

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Short inspection of Greenwood School

You and other leaders have successfully tackled the identified areas for improvement at the previous inspection. Teachers ask useful questions to challenge pupils and deepen their understanding. Activities are planned well so that pupils develop their independence and confidence. The whole-school marking and feedback policy is used by staff consistently and ensures that teachers assess how well pupils are doing and what they need to do next. Leaders’ work on attendance has brought improvements over the last three years. Your analysis indicates that attendance is not quite as high this year and you are sensibly taking steps to rectify this.

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Short inspection of Greenwood School

Staff have a deep understanding of safeguarding and how to keep pupils safe. They use their knowledge and experience well to ensure that all concerns are reported and followed up rigorously. The weekly safeguarding meetings provide a useful mechanism for staff to follow up on any concerns raised.

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Short inspection of Greenwood School

Safer recruitment processes are followed robustly. Many members of the management committee have undertaken training and have a thorough understanding of what is required to ensure that staff are safe to work with pupils. They make sure that pre-employment checks are carried out systematically so that staff are safe to work with pupils.

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Short inspection of Greenwood School

Pupils are taught to keep themselves safe and learn how to look after themselves. They have an appropriate understanding of the dangers of smoking, drinking and drugs abuse. They know about being safe online.

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Inspection findings

 During this inspection, inspectors considered the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements: how well leaders and governors have tackled the areas for improvement identified at the previous inspection; to what extent pupils’ needs are met, particularly disadvantaged pupils; and whether behaviour continues to be a strength.  Meeting pupils’ pastoral and academic needs is one of the school’s strengths. Staff across the school have a deep understanding of each pupil’s specific needs and situations. Pupils are assessed individually when they join the school to evaluate where they are and set targets for what can be achieved, both in the short and long term. Effective one-to-one and small group programmes help pupils to improve in specific areas, such as reading, spelling and mathematics. The emotional literacy support and counselling also meet pupils’ needs very well. As a result of this successful support, many pupils are able to rejoin their

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Inspection findings

previous schools.  Teaching continues to meet pupils’ needs well. Leaders’ formal and informal checks on teaching, alongside useful feedback, ensure that teachers deliver relevant and interesting lessons. Pupils appreciate teachers’ efforts to make lessons clear and enjoyable. Pupils say that they learn more at Greenwood than other schools they have attended because teachers understand them.  The systems for recording and tracking pupils’ academic achievements are helpful for showing staff and pupils how much progress has been made. However, the progress pupils make in non-academic areas are recorded more informally. As a result, staff and pupils are not able to track improvements in managing behaviour, social situations and emotions as easily.  Outcomes for pupils have improved year on year, reflecting your determination for every pupil to achieve academic qualifications. Leaders rightly identify that

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Inspection findings

disadvantaged pupils are doing better than they were but still do not do quite as well as other pupils. Leaders have commissioned an external review of the impact of pupil premium funding, which demonstrates their commitment to improve disadvantaged pupils’ outcomes. Furthermore, leaders are sensibly planning how to improve the attendance of these pupils.  There is slight variability in outcomes across different subjects. For example, in mathematics, pupils do not do quite as well as in other subjects. Leaders rightly recognise that pupils arrive with gaps in their understanding of mathematics. The introduction of small-group and one-to-one teaching is helping to tackle this.  The Year 11 pupils we spoke to have a clear idea of what they want to do next. Several have jobs lined up and they spoke with enthusiasm about what they will be doing in September. Very few pupils leave the school without knowing what

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Inspection findings

they will do next and the school checks pupils’ destinations carefully after they leave. Staff say that many pupils who leave come back to visit the school and see the staff, reflecting the strong sense of community they experience.

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Inspection findings

 Behaviour in lessons and around the school is calm and well managed. When challenging behaviour occurs, it is managed in line with the school’s agreed strategy for each individual pupil. Pupils comment positively on the way in which staff treat them with patience and respect. They say that this respect helps them to be more positive about themselves.  Weekly behaviour targets help pupils and staff to remove barriers to learning, without putting pupils under too much pressure. These targets identify the priorities for each pupil so that, over time, individuals learn to manage their behaviour better. Daily communication meetings before and after school enable staff to adapt the provision and additional support to best meet pupils’ needs. Behavioural incidents are recorded individually but are not analysed as systematically as they could be to identify trends over time.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and governors should ensure that:

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Next steps for the school

 the outcomes and attendance of disadvantaged pupils meet or exceed those of their peers  non-academic achievements, such as behavioural, social and emotional, are recorded systematically  the information gathered from monitoring and analysis is recorded and used systematically to support further improvement, for example in teaching and behaviour.

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Next steps for the school

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

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Information about the inspection

Inspectors met with you, the deputy headteacher and other leaders. With school leaders, we visited classes, where we observed teaching and spoke to pupils about their work. Her Majesty’s Inspector met with the chair of the governing body and the safeguarding governor, and held a telephone conversation with another governor. We spoke to a group of pupils and two groups of staff to explore their opinions. The views of parents were gathered through four responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, and through the school’s parents’ survey. The 20 pupils’ responses and 23 staff members’ responses to Ofsted questionnaires were also considered. We analysed a range of documentation, including the school’s self- evaluation and school improvement plan, and information about pupils’ progress and safeguarding checks, policies and procedures.

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