The Ark

The Ark The Pupil Learning Centre, Unit 2 Whitefield Centre, Albert Road, Whitefield, Greater Manchester M45 8NH

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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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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Earlier in the academic year 2016/17, the school hit a crisis point when the behaviour of pupils was poor. During this time the safety of pupils and staff was in jeopardy.  Systems in place to check on adults’ suitability to work with children are inadequate. Leaders and governors have lost sight of the need to complete these basic checks. Safeguarding is ineffective.  Governors do not provide effective support and challenge for senior leaders. Governors are divided in their views about the quality of the work that they do. There is some reluctance to accept responsibility for their part in the school’s decline.  Governors and leaders have an over-optimistic view of how well the school is performing. They have not achieved the key actions and priorities of the school improvement plan.  The quality of teaching has declined since the last inspection. Teachers do not plan lessons that enable pupils to make the progress of

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

which they are capable.  Teachers have not had the training that they need to improve outcomes for pupils.  In this challenging academic year, pupils’ progress, often from very low starting points, has been interrupted by poor behaviour. Pupils’ progress has declined since the previous inspection and now requires improvement.  Pupils’ personal development and welfare are inadequate because they are not safe.  As a result of the time that leaders have had to spend dealing with pupils’ poor behaviour, they have not given sufficient time to improving the overall quality of education that the school provides. It has declined since the previous inspection.  The school has received additional support from the local authority, which has been effective. Leaders continue to need support to improve the school.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Leaders have introduced new systems to improve pupils’ self-esteem and well-being.  Pupils’ attitudes towards each other are now much improved.  More recently, pupils’ behaviour across the school has improved considerably.  Temporary exclusions from school have now fallen dramatically.

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Full report

In accordance with section 44(2) of the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires significant improvement, because it is performing significantly less well than it might in all the circumstances reasonably be expected to perform.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve leadership and management by: – ensuring that robust systems are in place to make all necessary safeguarding checks – transforming the way that governors work so that they are fully aware of leaders’ work and its effect on school improvement – ensuring that all governor sub-committees have terms of reference – ensuring that all governors complete training, understand their roles and responsibilities and support and challenge school leaders and staff.  Improve the quality of teaching by: – providing teachers with appropriate training to ensure that they continue to develop their teaching practice – ensuring that teachers have consistently high expectations of what pupils should achieve. An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

 This is a school that is recovering from two very difficult school terms when high numbers of permanently excluded pupils were sent to The Ark. Leaders and staff were overwhelmed and overstretched trying to deal with very challenging pupil behaviour. They accept that they were not able to manage this situation well and as a result there were high levels of temporary exclusions from this school.  Weak support and challenge from governors have been unhelpful. This weakness persists. As a result, the quality of education that the school provides has declined since the previous inspection.  The school was at a crisis point early in 2017 because pupils’ behaviour was so poor and their safety and that of the staff were at risk. Consequently, the headteacher sensibly sought further help from the local authority. This support is still required.  The local authority wrote to the headteacher in January 2017, asking for a team

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

around the school meeting to discuss their serious concerns. The local authority was slow in setting up this meeting, which took place at the end of March.  Ongoing effective support has been provided by the local authority’s school effectiveness partner. This support has helped leaders to be much more realistic about the effectiveness of leadership and governance, teaching and pupils’ behaviour. Too often, however, local authority support has been driven by an unnecessary focus on what to do for Ofsted, at the expense of pupils’ needs.  Training for staff has suffered from the demands on their time to prepare for and manage pupils’ poor behaviour. There have been too few training opportunities for staff.  Leaders are developing the support and training that they offer schools in Bury to assist them in managing pupils with emotional or behavioural difficulties. This work aims to ensure that schools avoid excluding pupils and instead help them to settle and

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

achieve as well as they should.  Leaders are improving the way that they support pupils to return to a mainstream school. They successfully involve pupils and parents or carers in key meetings where decisions are made about a return to another school.  The curriculum is focused on improving pupils’ achievement in English and mathematics. Other subjects are taught through topics. These topics provide some opportunities for pupils to learn about other subjects. However, pupils’ attendance and behaviour does not always allow them to experience a balanced curriculum.  The headteacher and senior staff are determined to ensure that the school meets pupils’ needs. Leaders display a good level of resilience in dealing with challenging situations. Now the crisis period early in 2017 is over, leaders are successfully focusing on improving the school.  Leaders are effective in helping pupils to begin to understand how to embrace British

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

values. Leaders and staff help pupils to learn about democracy and mutual respect. Pupils also learn about the importance of being tolerant of those with different faiths and beliefs.  Senior leaders have used additional funding for disadvantaged pupils effectively to remove barriers to learning. The funding to support pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is also used wisely.  Leaders provide pupils with a range of opportunities through the primary physical education and sport premium. Pupils value these opportunities.

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Governance of the school

 Governors have not ensured that there are effective safeguarding systems in place. As a result, pupils are not safe.  Governors do not provide effective support or challenge for the headteacher. This has contributed to the decline in the school’s effectiveness.  Individual governors have very different and contradictory views about how successful the governing body is in meeting its core duties. Views range from ‘We are a strong governing body’ to ‘We lack rigour and are not sharp enough.’ These differing views reflect a muddled understanding of the governors’ work. This has a negative effect on the quality of education that the school provides.  Governors have not completed the actions set out in the school improvement plan that aim to improve the level of challenge and support that they give to senior leaders. Meetings with the staff responsible for curriculum subjects, for example, have not taken place.

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Governance of the school

 A skills audit undertaken by governors has highlighted the urgent need for training. This is so that they can fulfil their statutory duties effectively. It is also so that governors can drive the improvements needed to transform the school.  Governing body minutes show that some committees were working without terms of reference and agreed protocols.  Governors have not always had information from senior staff that will help them to ask challenging questions. This has contributed to the decline in the school’s overall effectiveness.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are ineffective.  There is no reliable system in place to make regular checks that adults are suitable to work with children. The local authority expects all maintained schools in Bury to do these checks every three years. This is not happening. As a result, pupils are not safe.  Other aspects of safeguarding are effective. The school works well with other professionals that work to support and care for children.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

 Teaching requires improvement because some teachers do not help pupils to settle and learn as quickly as they should. Consequently, pupils do not make the progress of which they are capable.  Some of the work in pupils’ books shows that teaching across different subjects is not always challenging enough. In mathematics, for example, pupils do not have sufficient opportunity to practise their problem-solving skills.  When teachers in the school manage pupils’ behaviour well, teachers are effective in helping them to learn. However, pupils’ behaviour has been a significant barrier to learning until very recently.  Teachers use praise well, gently encouraging pupils to stay on task. Pupils feel valued when they are encouraged to achieve well.  Inspectors observed teachers explaining things clearly to pupils. These clear explanations helped pupils to understand what they had to do.  The staff work as a team. Teaching assistants work well with teachers in supporting

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

pupils in lessons.  Classrooms are kept neat and tidy and there are good displays of pupils’ work.  A new and improved system to check on pupils’ progress has been introduced. This identifies what pupils have learned. Early signs suggest that judgements about pupils’ progress are more positive than what inspectors found in pupils’ books.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is inadequate.  Leaders’ arrangements to safeguard pupils are ineffective. As a result, pupils are not safe.  Pupils find it difficult to work with each other. They can quickly end up in arguments. Sometimes staff have to find ways to separate pupils to ensure that all pupils are safe.  About eight months ago the school introduced a new way of working to help pupils build the skills that they need to manage their emotions. This was a good move forward. This new way of working skilfully focuses on the four key areas of self- awareness, self-regulation, motivation and empathy. Pupils are assessed against these four areas when they join the school. Leaders then measure how much progress pupils have made at key intervals. Evidence from these assessments shows that more recently most pupils are making good progress. Pupils are now much more resilient.

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Personal development and welfare

Their self-esteem and emotional well-being have also improved.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils requires improvement.  Until very recently, pupils’ behaviour was inadequate. However, leaders have now improved pupils’ behaviour considerably. Leaders’ systems and procedures for behaviour management are now much more effective.  Pupils’ behaviour in lessons is variable. This can have a negative effect on their learning and progress.  During this inspection pupils’ behaviour was generally good. Pupils conducted themselves with self-discipline and generally related well to one another. This reflects the much more settled end of the academic year. However, the school’s log of serious incidents for the academic year shows that there have been some significant issues.  Attendance for the current pupils is good. Over the academic year attendance has fluctuated significantly. Where it has been low for any individual pupil, it is often because of the impact of temporary exclusions from school.

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Outcomes for pupils Require improvement

 Pupils join the school often having had substantial disruptions to their education. As a result, many pupils do not work at the standard that is expected for their age. From low starting points, the academic progress that pupils make varies and overall requires improvement. Some pupils do not make the progress of which they are capable, especially the most able.  Pupils’ work in books shows that they are generally making some progress across a range of subjects. However, it is not good enough. Pupils’ work in mathematics, for example, shows that pupils’ progress is not always as good as it should be.  Teachers track individual pupil’s progress in reading, writing and mathematics. This information would suggest that in the past pupils made good progress. Inspectors could not confirm the accuracy of this judgement. However, teachers’ information about the progress that current pupils make is too optimistic. Inspectors found that the

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Outcomes for pupils Require improvement

work in pupils’ books does not always match up with leaders’ own information.  For some children their learning is supported by lots of practical work. This is especially so for younger pupils who have very low starting points. The practical play that they do helps them to make more secure progress. This is because it better meets their needs. It also helps to re-engage pupils and develop their confidence.  The number of pupils attending the school is low. Consequently, it is not appropriate to draw conclusions about the progress of different groups.  Inspectors heard pupils read confidently. In one session older pupils listened intently to the teacher read from ‘The Twits’ by Roald Dahl. In response to good questioning by the teacher, pupils suggested further adverbs Roald Dahl could have used, such as ‘awkwardly’, ‘nervously’, ‘barely’ and ‘quickly’.  The use of pupil premium funding is effective in supporting pupils’ learning. It has, for

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Outcomes for pupils Require improvement

example, been used to train teachers in supporting children with specific emotional needs.  There has been a concerted effort by all staff to return to the key purpose of the school, which is to help pupils return to mainstream schools. Recent improvements to pupils’ behaviour and carefully managed reintegration back into mainstream school are working. Pupils are not, however, catching up academically to where they are expected to be.

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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

Date of previous inspection 11–12 September 2012

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Information about this school

 The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.  Pupils join The Ark often having experienced disruption in their education for many different reasons. In the academic year 2016/17, most of the pupils who joined the school had been permanently excluded from their previous school.  Since January 2017 this school has been judged to be an intervention school by the local authority. This means that the local authority has concerns about the school’s performance. As a result, the local authority is providing additional support.  At the time of the inspection all of the pupils were boys and the majority were of White British origin.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is much higher than the national average.

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Information about this inspection

 An inspector observed pupils’ arrival into school.  Inspectors observed learning in a range of lessons.  Inspectors looked at a wide range of pupils’ work in lessons.  Meetings were held with the headteacher, senior leaders, members of the governing body and the school’s improvement officer. An inspector met a parent and had a telephone discussion with a carer.  A range of documentation was scrutinised by the inspection team, including the school’s own self-evaluation, the school improvement plan, local authority monitoring reports and a health check on the school’s performance. Attendance, behaviour and exclusion records were scrutinised, in addition to records of meetings of the governing body. Inspectors also considered the school’s information about pupils’ progress in their learning.  Observations of pupils’ behaviour were undertaken in and between lessons, during breaktimes and at lunchtimes.

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Information about this inspection

 There were no responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View.

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Inspection team

Andrew Cook, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Doreen Davenport 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

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open- government-licence/ , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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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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