Green Heath School

Green Heath School Oakwood House, 43–51 Whitmore Road, Small Heath, Birmingham B10 0NR

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The school meets all the regulatory requirements of the independent school standards.  The senior management team of the school ensures that pupils are able to achieve success. The proprietor supports the school well. However, she does not always challenge the school enough. Teachers have not had enough training in teaching English as an additional language.  The curriculum is broad and balanced. Its focus on developing pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding is excellent. Pupils respect the views of others, whatever their background. The school prepares pupils well for life in modern Britain.  Support for pupils, many of whom begin the school with a very limited knowledge of English, enables them to learn English quickly. However, teachers do not routinely expect pupils to develop their spoken language by speaking in full sentences. They also do not ensure that pupils use dual language dictionaries and

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

information and communication technology to improve their language knowledge often enough.  Teachers have good subject knowledge and plan activities for pupils that are pitched at an appropriately challenging level. However, teachers do not put enough emphasis on mathematical reasoning.  Assessment procedures ensure that teachers are able to plan appropriate work for pupils. However, leaders do not monitor the progress of individual pupils frequently enough.  The headteacher, the proprietor and staff make the safeguarding of pupils a priority so that pupils feel safe at all times in school. This security contributes to the growing confidence that pupils show in their learning and relationships.  Pupils are well behaved and courteous, and get on well with adults and their peers. A very few pupils do not attend school often enough.  Pupils make good progress so that they all leave the school with qualifications and move

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

on to meaningful destinations in either further education or work.  Managers keep appropriate records in all areas of school life but sometimes these are not systematic enough. Compliance with regulatory requirements

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The school meets the requirements of the schedule to the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014 (‘the independent school standards’) and associated requirements.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Further improve the quality of teaching, learning, assessment and progress by: – ensuring that pupils have frequent opportunities to rehearse their spoken language skills in all lessons and develop their depth of understanding of English – extending opportunities for pupils to apply reasoning in problem solving within mathematics – ensuring that the assessment and monitoring of pupils’ progress is more rigorous.  Improve personal development, behaviour and welfare by: – making sure that pupils are provided with opportunities to become more independent in their learning by using a wider range of reference and information and communication technology to support their understanding – ensuring that the very few pupils who come to school less often than they should improve their attendance.  Improve leadership and management by ensuring that: – opportunities for continuing professional development enable staff to become

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

outstanding teachers of English as an additional language – the proprietor provides sufficient challenge to the senior leadership team – there is a systematic approach to record-keeping.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 The school meets all of the independent school standards.  The school management aims for success against a background of equality and fairness. All staff share this vision and support each other as a most effective team.  All staff say that they are generally very well supported in their school roles and in their personal well-being by the management. However, there has been insufficient training to help teachers to improve their teaching of English as an additional language.  Leaders have a good awareness of the school’s effectiveness. Their self-evaluation is realistic and accurate.  All staff are trained yearly in safeguarding to fulfil their child protection and ‘Prevent’ duties effectively. The school has a safeguarding policy published on its website. The policy meets government requirements.  The headteacher ensures that there is good practice for the induction of new pupils who enter the school at different times of the year. He meets all parents and carers to discuss

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

the academic and personal needs of each pupil, using interpreters where necessary.  The senior management team has ensured that there are good-quality curriculum plans and language learning plans in place to support the varying needs of the pupils who have different starting points. Leaders ensure that they embed British values throughout the curriculum. The curriculum is broad, balanced and well planned to allow pupils to make good links between subjects. Staff provide pupils with opportunities to enrich their learning through visits to the Birmingham Library and Warwick Castle.  A family learning day each week fosters very good relationships with parents and carers and ensures that families understand and can support the work that pupils are undertaking. Almost all the parents who responded to Parent View, Ofsted’s online survey, were supportive of the school.  The school promotes pupils’ moral, social and cultural development well. Assemblies and

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education lessons ensure that pupils develop a strong understanding of equalities and how to develop relationships. They also have a good knowledge of similarities and differences between different religions.  Leaders make effective use of the funding for pupils placed in the school by the local authority. Most of this money is spent on teaching staff as well as on external educational visitors and visits.  Record-keeping is not always as organised as it needs to be. As a result, records are sometimes difficult to find quickly and this impacts on leaders’ ability to monitor aspects of the school’s work, including attendance.

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Governance

 The proprietor has high expectations for all people in the school: the headteacher, the staff and the pupils. She communicates her vision of success through education to both pupils and staff by: – frequent presence in all aspects of school life – taking personal interest in staff and pupils – monitoring teaching – being clearly aware of the progress that pupils make – ensuring that she is aware of what pupils enjoy most.  However, the proprietor does not always provide sufficient challenge to the headteacher and staff so that improvements can be made in a timelier manner.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. The headteacher and staff have created a strong culture of shared responsibility for protecting pupils and this permeates all areas of the school’s work. The daily meeting that the headteacher has with all staff for ten minutes at the end of every day ensures that he has a very open relationship with everyone. Staff have many opportunities to bring to his attention any concerns.  Secure systems are in place to ensure that all staff know how to keep pupils safe. Leaders are tenacious in following up concerns and ensuring that they inform outside agencies when a pupil is at risk or missing from education.  The school site is secure and all visitors’ identities are checked when they enter the building. It is a modern, well-maintained building with a high standard of cleanliness and safety measures. There is a well-functioning lift for disabled visitors or pupils. Regular

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Safeguarding

checks are carried out to make sure that all members of the school community can safely leave the building in the event of a fire.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

 Pupils say that the best thing about the school is the teachers. They are very secure in the knowledge that the teachers want them to do well. They know that the teachers care about both their personal well-being and their educational progress. Relationships between adults and pupils are underpinned by mutual respect. This ensures that their engagement in lessons is excellent.  Pupils, who speak a wide variety of different languages and come from different backgrounds, get on very well with each other. They support one another to make progress in their learning.  Teachers are often able to use their knowledge of other languages to support the understanding of their pupils. This helps pupils to develop their knowledge of English more quickly. However, they do not make sufficient use of the variety of information and communication technology resources available, along with dual language dictionaries, to

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

support pupils to become more independent in their language learning.  Teachers do not have a high enough expectation of pupils in terms of spoken language. Often, they do not expect pupils to answer questions with more than one word. This means that pupils do not have enough practice in speaking formal English.  Teachers’ good subject knowledge helps them to integrate the teaching of the subject with the English language needs of the pupils. They emphasise technical language that is important and relevant to different subjects. However, in mathematics teachers do not provide sufficient opportunities for pupils to apply reasoning in problem solving and this sometimes slows pupils’ progress.  Teachers use the resources they have effectively to promote pupils’ learning.  Teachers pitch learning activities at appropriately challenging levels with further challenge for pupils who are capable of achieving more.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

 Pupils have access to a wide variety of quality texts in the library at different ability levels. While there are some dual language texts in the library, they are few in number and this limits pupils’ opportunities to compare their first languages with English. Those pupils who are at early stages of learning English learn to read in a most supportive atmosphere where they are motivated by praise, rewards and the support of their peers.  Most-able pupils who study GCSEs say that teachers frequently give them one-to-one support to help them with misconceptions or to prepare for assessments. Pupils value their teachers’ support and have a high respect for them.  A combination of day-to-day assessment and more formal termly tests supports teachers to measure pupils’ progress. Teachers regularly discuss the progress of pupils informally with each other. However, formal review meetings of each pupil’s progress are not

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

frequent enough and this limits staff in monitoring pupils’ progress rigorously.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.  Pupils support each other and work well together. They have good relationships with the staff, with the headteacher and with the proprietor.  The school is a most secure environment where the pupils say that they always feel safe. Pupils’ confidence develops as they become more accustomed to the fact that adults are all striving for their success and well-being. This was reflected in a parent’s comment that, ‘The school has been extremely supportive in all aspects of my child’s learning since she started. Staff have motivated her to do better and believe in herself. I am grateful for all they have done in such a short time.’  The school teaches pupils how to keep themselves safe in a variety of situations and online. They know that they should tell someone who they trust if they have any concerns about their own safety.

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Personal development and welfare

 Pupils have careers information, advice and guidance weekly and all have a clear idea of what they would like to do in future. Most pupils spoke about a desire to continue their education at college and especially about a desire to improve their English skills even more. One boy was aware that he needs to improve his English but also of the wide educational opportunities there are to find out about ‘… much more than just English’.  Spiritual, moral, social and cultural education effectively supports pupils to develop their relationships and understandings of the community and the world. They have considerable knowledge of different faiths and can describe similarities between faiths.  Pupils have a clear knowledge of British values. The views of many pupils were reflected through a pupil’s comment that, ‘In Britain we accept that other people might have different beliefs than ours and they may believe in different religions.’

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Personal development and welfare

 Pupils preparing for GCSEs gave good presentations about either social media or social enterprise. They were able to talk convincingly and at length about the benefits and drawbacks. They spoke with poise and confidence. However, pupils are not fully supported in developing independence in their learning through using information and communication technology and dual language reference materials.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good.  Pupils behave extremely well both in lessons and as they move through the school. They are courteous and respectful to staff and visitors.  The vast majority of pupils attend regularly. While the school makes considerable efforts to improve attendance, there are still a very small minority of pupils who do not attend regularly enough.

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Outcomes for pupils Good

 Pupils make good progress from their very different starting points. This progress is the result of individual learning plans for each pupil that recognise their strengths and areas for development.  A large number of pupils arrive with no English and leave after two years or less with qualifications in a variety of subjects as well as with increased personal confidence.  Where entry assessments show that they are capable, some pupils are entered for GCSEs in English, mathematics, science, business studies and sometimes in the pupils’ first languages.  All pupils leave the school with qualifications: either functional qualifications in English, mathematics, personal and social education, science or GCSEs.  Pupils are encouraged to read widely. Some of them arrive unable to read in any language and some of them can already read in a language other than English. They leave school with a developed ability to understand the importance of reading and with

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Outcomes for pupils Good

greatly improved abilities in reading English.  Pupils move to meaningful destinations in either further education or work.

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School details

This inspection was carried out under section 109(1) and (2) of the Education and Skills Act 2008, the purpose of which is to advise the Secretary of State for Education about the school’s suitability for continued registration as an independent school.

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School details

Email address zain@greenheathschool.org.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 20–21 September 2012

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Information about this school

 Green Heath School has recently changed its name and moved into modern, well- equipped accommodation. It used to be known as The Alyssa School.  The last standard inspection by Ofsted of the Alyssa School was in September 2012.  Following the standard inspection, Ofsted conducted an emergency inspection in April 2013 because of concerns that adults over the age of 19 were using the same site as the pupils in the school. There were other safeguarding concerns at that time related to the single central record, staff files and attendance and admissions registers. A further emergency inspection in June 2013 confirmed that there were no adult learners on the site and no intention to admit any and that the issues with registration had been resolved. Since that time, the school has moved into the new building and therefore was subject to a material change inspection in October 2014.  There is a small but adequate playground that pupils use for recreation. For sports

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Information about this school

lessons teachers take the pupils to the local park or use a spacious sports hall behind the school by agreement with another provider.  Green Heath School is an Independent School, registered for 120 pupils aged from 11 to 19 years. There are currently 17 pupils on roll. There is no post-16 provision at present.  There are no pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.  A large majority of the pupils have English as an additional language and come from a wide range of backgrounds, including eastern and western European countries, the Middle East and the Asian subcontinent.  Many of the pupils have been referred to the school by ‘Pupil Connect’, a part of Birmingham City Council which secures education for pupils who are disconnected from school. A few pupils come from mainstream schools as part of a managed move.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector observed three lessons and scrutinised a variety of pupils’ books. Year 11 pupils were taking their GCSE examinations so it was not possible to observe their lessons but the inspector evaluated their books as well as observing video evidence of their speaking skills. The inspector held meetings with the headteacher, the proprietor and with the English and PSHE teacher. She spoke briefly with several other members of staff and met with two groups of pupils to seek their views about school life. She also had a telephone conversation with the placement officer at the local authority.  A wide variety of documentation was scrutinised to check compliance with the independent school standards. The inspector looked at the school’s self-evaluation document, behaviour information and data relating to pupils’ attendance and progress. The inspector also checked the effectiveness of the school’s safeguarding arrangements.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector took into consideration the nine responses to Parent View. She also evaluated the seven responses from the school staff questionnaire.

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Inspection team

Mary Maybank, lead inspector 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

Parent View 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

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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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