Marjorie McClure School

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

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Mrs Denise James-Mason Headteacher Marjorie McClure School Hawkwood Lane Chislehurst Kent BR7 5PW

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Short inspection of Marjorie McClure School

Following my visit to the school on 30 January 2018 with Sue Bzikot, 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 outstanding in July 2014.

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Short inspection of Marjorie McClure School

This school continues to be outstanding.

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Short inspection of Marjorie McClure School

The leadership team and governors have maintained the outstanding quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

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Short inspection of Marjorie McClure School

Your leadership team is well established, and leaders have a clear understanding of the school’s strengths and areas for development. Since the last inspection, you have built on outstanding practice and have continued to take effective action to improve the quality of education.

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Short inspection of Marjorie McClure School

Across the diverse age and ability range of pupils, it is clearly evident that pupils are engaged and make excellent progress with their learning. Teaching is effective because classroom activities are carefully tailored to pupils’ individual skills and abilities so that they capture pupils’ interests and enthusiasms. Our visits to classrooms confirm that the calm and purposeful learning atmosphere across all subject areas enables pupils to achieve extremely well.

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Short inspection of Marjorie McClure School

Partnerships with other schools enable pupils to participate in a wide range of sports and academic subjects at both GCSE and A level. The leader for the sports partnership stated that ‘anything is possible’ and this ‘can do’ message is evidenced through all aspects of the school day.

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Short inspection of Marjorie McClure School

Pupils are happy and feel safe. Through the school council, pupils created their own values to use as their school rules. The key values of friendship, excellence, equality and respect are some of these values that have been incorporated into a new school song. This they proudly sang at assembly during the inspection, with great enthusiasm.

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Short inspection of Marjorie McClure School

Parents and carers are very supportive of the school. Almost all parents believe that the school supports the needs of their children well and would recommend the school to another parent. One parent spoke of how the school works with both the child and family to achieve the best possible outcomes.

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Short inspection of Marjorie McClure School

Governors use their experience and expertise to challenge and support leaders to ensure that the school continues to improve and provide outstanding learning opportunities for all pupils.

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Short inspection of Marjorie McClure School

You have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and that records are detailed and accurate. All members of the leadership team have designated safeguarding training and are conversant with the systems needed to support the welfare of the pupils should you, as the designated safeguarding lead, be off-site or unavailable. There are secure and transparent systems in place across the school to ensure that all pupils are safe and protected.

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Short inspection of Marjorie McClure School

When required, referrals are promptly made and followed up if necessary. Outside agencies are used appropriately to support both children and families. Records of checks on the suitability of staff are well managed and fully compliant with all necessary information about staff, volunteers and governors recorded.

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Short inspection of Marjorie McClure School

Attendance concerns are addressed effectively and, where needed, outside agencies are enlisted to support both pupils and their families. Parents’ meeting sessions have been established and cover topics relevant to ongoing support for pupils and their families. Effective action is taken to improve the attendance of pupils who are absent for medical reasons, with creative outcomes including offering home  school support for phased returns to the school environment.

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Short inspection of Marjorie McClure School

Pupils feel safe at school and they voiced this very clearly through discussion with inspectors over the course of the day and at the school council meeting. Pupils were clear that they would talk to a teacher or other adult in their class if they were feeling worried or had a problem. They had no hesitation in saying that they knew their problems would be listened to. Pupils are happy and feel safe at school.

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Inspection findings

 At the start of the inspection, we agreed to look at how effectively leaders monitor and evaluate pupils’ progress. A very clear assessment and tracking system has been created to collect, monitor and analyse academic progress and achievement of education, health and care plan outcomes, as well as pupils’ well- being overall. Progress is closely monitored so that individual and whole-group interventions can be put in place where additional support is required to secure stronger progress. Individual pupils achieve consistently well across all year groups from the early years to post-16. Nevertheless, leaders acknowledge that the range of 14 to 19 courses is currently underdeveloped.  Joint working and engagement with the local authority and partnership schools ensure that school systems are robust and transparent. The school community effectively uses school assessment information. For example, teaching staff use

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Inspection findings

the information to plan interesting activities to ensure that they are set at the correct level to match pupils’ skills and abilities. Governors use these data to hold school leaders to account for the school’s performance.  Resources across the school are well used to support pupils’ progress. Staff use signing, touch cues, symbol and hearing support adaptors to ensure that pupils are able to communicate effectively and engage with their learning. Pupils are very proud of their achievements and are well supported for these successes by the staff team. The pupils take pride in their work and were happy to share what they were learning.  We next looked at the school’s curriculum to ensure that all pupils make at least good progress and are able to proceed to the next stage of their education. The curriculum is well-balanced to meet the individual learning needs of all pupils. The curriculum provides many opportunities for pupils to develop their

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Inspection findings

communication, literacy and numeracy skills. Partnership opportunities are well placed to enhance the curriculum delivery and improve pupils’ learning outcomes.  Finally, we looked at how effective leaders have been in improving the training and development of staff, and in particular teaching assistants. This was because this was highlighted at the previous inspection as an area for improvement. You have upskilled staff to become trainers for specific interventions and strategies, such as behaviour management and safeguarding. You and senior leaders have created an effective training and development programme that ensures that staff are able to support pupils in their learning.  Inspection evidence shows that pupils make strong progress across a range of subjects because they are extremely well taught. The warm, friendly and caring school ensures that pupils feel safe and secure. Staff, pupils and the governing

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Inspection findings

body are clearly passionate and committed to the school vision and ethos of ‘Inspiring success’.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:  the pathways for 14 to 19 curriculum options offer better opportunities for pupils through an increased availability of courses and learning options. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Bromley. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

Inspectors met with you, other senior leaders, two governors including the chair of the governing body and members of the school council. An inspector held a telephone conversation with a representative of the local authority. Inspectors spoke with parents and pupils. Inspectors scrutinised a range of documentation including that relating to arrangements for safeguarding, the school’s self-improvement plan and minutes of meetings of the governing body. They scrutinised information about attendance, the curriculum and pupils’ progress. Inspectors visited classrooms with senior leaders to gather evidence of teaching, learning and assessment. An inspector also accompanied pupils to their off-site learning session in the co-located secondary school to gather information about the curriculum offer and progress of these pupils. Inspectors considered 20 responses and five free-text comments on Ofsted’s online

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Information about the inspection

questionnaire, Parent View. Inspectors also looked at 68 responses to the staff questionnaire.

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