The Warriner School

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

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Annabel Kay Headteacher The Warriner School Banbury Road Bloxham Banbury Oxfordshire OX15 4LJ

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Short inspection of The Warriner School

Following my visit to the school on 30 January 2018 with Mark Duke and Peter Barnes, Ofsted Inspectors, 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 your predecessor school was judged to be good in November 2014.

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Short inspection of The Warriner School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

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Short inspection of The Warriner School

Your collaborative and reflective approach ensures that members of your senior team always have the best interests of the pupils at the forefront of their minds. Leaders have a strong moral purpose to match the curriculum to the pupil and you have recently redesigned your key stage 4 curriculum. This now provides more appropriate pathways to support those with different standards of attainment on entry. Leaders and governors are determined that all pupils should leave school with a sustainable route into education, training or employment. You have an accurate view of the school’s strengths and weaknesses.

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Short inspection of The Warriner School

Leaders have established a culture for learning, which ensures that pupils arrive ready to take an active role in their learning. Pupils are polite and show respect to each other as they calmly move around the school site. Year 7 pupils told inspectors that their school is a ‘tolerant, respectful community, where all feel equally valued’.

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Short inspection of The Warriner School

Leaders and governors meet regularly to review and evaluate the impact that leaders’ actions are having on pupils’ well-being, progress and attendance. Governors know the school well. However, they recognise that they do not challenge some key improvement priorities well enough, for example the progress of disadvantaged pupils and overall attendance. At the last inspection, inspectors asked leaders to help teachers make better use of information about pupils’ performance, so that they plan lessons more effectively to accelerate pupils’ progress. Inspectors asked leaders to ensure that pupils received suitable advice and guidance on the sixth form.

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Short inspection of The Warriner School

Leaders carefully analyse pupil progress data to identify which groups need further help and support. Your teams have a clear plan on how these actions will have a positive impact on pupils’ achievements. Changes to the teaching and learning policy now ensure that teachers regularly review and analyse the progress that each pupil is making towards their expected end-of-year grades. Teachers’ planning has also improved, which means that teachers plan lessons that are more appropriately pitched to stretch and challenge pupils. Pupils’ books are typically well presented. Most pupils make good progress. However, you recognise that some pupils, including those who have poor attendance, are not making the same progress as those who attend regularly.

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Short inspection of The Warriner School

You opened your sixth form centre in 2014. Since then, you have regularly revisited the entry requirements to ensure that you have the right students on appropriate courses, to maximise successful outcomes. You have focused your sixth form provision on A-level courses. The impartial careers advice and guidance offered to pupils across the school are helping them to make informed decisions, and choose an appropriate post-16 route. Consequently, those choosing the school’s sixth form meet the entry requirements and have the aptitude for A-level courses. Post-16 outcomes continue to be above national averages.

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Short inspection of The Warriner School

In 2017, Year 11 pupils made progress broadly in line with national averages. In this cohort, many of your disadvantaged pupils also had special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities. Most of these vulnerable pupils’ outcomes were not as strong as you had anticipated. Some of these pupils also had poor attendance.

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Short inspection of The Warriner School

The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and that records are detailed and of high quality. Governors routinely check that all processes and policies meet requirements and that school records are thorough and complete.

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Short inspection of The Warriner School

Specifically trained safeguarding staff ensure that there is a strong culture of safeguarding across the school. When appropriate, leaders seek the advice and guidance of outside agencies. Staff periodically receive useful safeguarding training and have recently undergone refresher training on radicalisation.

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Short inspection of The Warriner School

Pupils are taught how to stay safe and say that they feel safe at school. The vast majority of parents and carers agree that their children are well cared for and safe.

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Short inspection of The Warriner School

Pupils told inspectors that they are confident about who to go to if they have a concern. They also told inspectors that leaders quickly deal with any incidents of bullying. The school’s work in educating pupils about the risks of drugs, alcohol and e-safety takes a high priority throughout the academic year.

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Inspection findings

 During this inspection, inspectors looked closely at specific aspects of the school’s provision, including: the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements; attendance; the progress of disadvantaged pupils; and mathematics provision.  The majority of your pupils regularly attend school. However, you recognise that attendance is too low for a small group of pupils, including some disadvantaged pupils and those who have SEN and/or disabilities. Your new attendance officer and tutor teams are building stronger relationships with families, to encourage these pupils to improve their attendance and reduce persistence absenteeism. This is beginning to have a positive impact, and more of these pupils are attending well as a result. However, you recognise that more work is still needed to improve pupils’ attendance and have identified this as a whole-school focus for this year.  In 2017, many of your disadvantaged pupils did not make the rapid gains you

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Inspection findings

had expected in their GCSE courses. As a result, you have now changed how teachers support these groups of pupils in lessons and have shone a spotlight on this group. You have directed all teachers to check on the progress that these pupils make in all lessons. Books reviewed in lessons by inspectors indicate that these pupils are now making similar progress to their peers. Disadvantaged pupils told inspectors that their learning conversations with their teachers are helping them to improve their work. You have worked hard to ensure that all disadvantaged pupils’ parents and carers meet with staff on parents’ evenings. This enables staff and parents to work collaboratively to improve pupils’ outcomes and decide their next steps. Your careers programme, ‘raising aspiration’, is also encouraging more pupils to aim higher. Consequently, the progress made by this group of pupils is beginning to improve. At key stage 3,

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Inspection findings

school information indicates that disadvantaged pupils are making similar progress to their peers. At sixth form, more of your most-able disadvantaged pupils are applying to university or choosing challenging career options. However, leaders and governors know that key stage 4 outcomes for disadvantaged pupils need to improve. Governors realise that they need to question leaders more frequently, so that they have a sharper understanding of which strategies are accelerating these pupils’ progress and meeting the school’s success criteria.  Historically, pupils’ attainment and progress in GCSE mathematics have not been as strong as in English. You have identified that the curriculum did not sufficiently challenge and develop pupils’ problem-solving and reasoning skills. Your new subject leader and your mathematics staff have now addressed these issues and adjusted their lessons, so that pupils develop these higher-level skills

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Inspection findings

from Year 7. Consequently, pupils, including the most able, are improving rapidly by challenging themselves to tackle and solve more complex problems.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:  the attendance of pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and those who have SEN and/or disabilities, improves  they evaluate more carefully the impact of provision for disadvantaged pupils so that interventions have a positive impact on progress, across subjects and year groups. I am copying this letter to the chair of the board of trustees, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Oxfordshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

Inspectors met with you, your leadership team and the chair of governors. The inspection team met with pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and those who have SEN and/or disabilities, both formally and informally, to discuss their views about their learning. Inspectors visited lessons, in a range of subjects and year groups, with you and members of the leadership team. We looked at the school’s documentation, including your evaluation of the school’s effectiveness and school development plan. We evaluated progress and attendance information relating to current pupils, and reviewed minutes of governors’ meetings. We also checked the school’s policies relating to safeguarding, the use of additional funding, including pupil premium funding, and the curriculum. Inspectors considered 158 responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View.

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