Four Dwellings High School

Age group 11–16 Inspection date(s) 22–23 February 2012 Inspection number 376917 Four Dwellings High School Inspection report

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Unique reference number 103510 Local authority Birmingham Inspection number 376917 Inspection dates 22–23 February 2012 Lead inspector Peter Limm HMI

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This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Type of school Secondary School category Foundation Age range of pupils 11–16 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 592 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair John Hughes Headteacher Bernie Smith Date of previous school inspection 17 June 2009 School address Dwellings Lane Birmingham B32 1RJ Telephone number 0121 422 0131 Fax number 0121 423 1352 Email address b.smith@fourdwellings.bham.sch.uk 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 Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked

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after children, safeguarding and child protection. Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way. To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’.

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T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk 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.

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You can also use Parent View to find out what other parents and carers thi nk about schools in England. You can visit www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk , or look for the link on the main Ofsted website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Introduction

This inspection was carried out with two days' notice. The inspectors visited 30 lessons or activities, including two joint observations with a member of the senior leadership team, and observed 27 teachers. They held meetings with senior and middle leaders, the Chair of the Governing Body, staff, groups of students, five parents and a consultant who had been the school’s National Challenge Adviser. Inspectors took account of the responses to the on-line questionnaire (Parent View) in planning the inspection, observed the school’s work, and looked at progress tracking and performance data, the school development plans, students’ work and numerous policies, documents, guidelines, plans and reviews. The questionnaire responses from 24 parents and carers, 90 students and 15 staff were analysed also.

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Information about the school

Four Dwellings is a much smaller than average-sized secondary school. The majority of students are from White British heritage although there are students from many different heritages, the largest of which is Black British Caribbean or African. The proportion of students who have English as an additional language is higher than average.The proportion of diasabled students and those who have special educational needs is much higher than the national average. Their needs vary but include ongoing medical conditions, moderate learning difficulties, speech and language difficulties or social, emotional and behavioural needs. Overall, there are more boys than girls in the school. The proportion of students known to be eligible for free school meals is much higher than average. The school has specialist status for science. It is part of a local ‘soft’ federation of schools and also a wider network of schools in south-west Birmingham which collaborate over 14-19 provision.

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Information about the school

The school does not meet the current government floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for students’ attainment and progress. It was part of the National Challenge between 2008 and 2011 and recently has had a formal notice to improve from the local authority.

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Key findings

 In accordance with section 13(3) of the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement.

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Key findings

 The school fails to provide an adequate standard of education because achievement, teaching, and leadership and management are inadequate.

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Key findings

 Students enter and leave the school with attainment that is below that expected nationally but this does not represent satisfactory progress because too many students from different groups in too many subjects make inadequate progress.

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Key findings

 Too much teaching over time is not good enough and insufficient attention is paid to developing students’ communication, literacy and numeracy skills across the curriculum. Teachers’ marking does not consistently indicate what students need to do to make progress in their learning. Although teachers have assessment information available to enable them to identify individual learning needs, too often this knowledge is not used effectively to plan appropriately challenging lessons or to monitor and record students’ learning in lessons.

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Key findings

 Leaders and managers at all levels have failed to ensure that all groups of students reach their potential, even allowing for low attainment on entry. They have not acted robustly or effectively enough in monitoring the school’s performance and provision to eradicate the significant underachievement and inadequate teaching that currently exists. Governors have not, until recently, played a strong enough role in holding senior leaders to account for the school’s performance. Improvement plans are not sufficiently clear or detailed enough to ensure that improvement will be made and evaluated.

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Key findings

 The school provides a safe environment for its students. Behaviour and attendance are both satisfactory overall. The school’s behaviour log indicates that incidents of poor behaviour in class and around the school have declined over the past two years.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Urgently increase the rate of progress made by students in all subjects so that by July 2012, and increasingly thereafter, attainment gets much closer to national levels at the end of Key Stage 4.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the impact of leaders at all levels on raising achievement by:  ensuring that staff understand what assessment information tells them about the capabilities of each student  improving school and departmental improvement planning so that it sets out clearly how students will make more rapid progress and by when  ensuring that students’ literacy and numeracy skills are promoted and established in all subjects across the school.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the proportion of good or better teaching across the school by ensuring that:  monitoring and evaluation focus on the contribution that teaching makes to students’ learning, and evaluating clearly the progress made by different groups of students  teachers use assessment information consistently well when planning lessons so that work is well matched to students’ individual needs, provides high levels of challenge and ensures that students make consistently good or better progress  teachers’ skills are effectively developed in the use of strategies to check that learning is taking place throughout lessons  marking and assessment are consistently effective in accelerating students’ progress.

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Achievement of pupils

Inspection evidence shows that achievement is inadequate for many groups of students. Attainment has not improved rapidly enough since the previous inspection. With external support, attainment in English and mathematics improved between 2009 and 2011 but not sufficiently to reduce markedly the gap with national averages. Unvalidated data for 2011 shows that, although there has been some improvement in mathematics, the proportions of students gaining five A* to C grades, including English and mathematics, and A* or A passes in GCSE examinations, remain significantly below average in too many subjects. Too many groups of students make slower than expected progress. Underachievement is most marked for boys, those who are eligible for free school meals, and those disabled students and those who have special educational needs who are not supported on a one-to-one basis. Too many Year 11 students are still underachieving in English and

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Achievement of pupils

science. The science specialism has helped to broaden curriculum provision in the school, but its impact is yet to be felt in terms of raising achievement and bringing about improvement across the whole school. Most of the few parents who responded to the Ofsted questionnaire thought that their children make good progress at school.

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Quality of teaching

Too much teaching over time is weak and insufficient attention is paid to developing students’ communication, literacy and numeracy skills across the curriculum. The progress being made by students in too many lessons is too slow to address this underachievement. Of the few parents and carers who responded to the questionnaire, the majority thought that their children made good progress and were taught well. A large majority of students who responded mostly thought they were taught well. Inspection evidence does not confirm these views. Inspectors observed examples of good teaching, where assessment information was used precisely to plan challenging lesson activities and where skilful questioning drew students into learning. As a consequence, students’ behaviour and attitudes to learning were good. However, teaching was good in only a minority of lessons and this contrasted sharply with the more typical satisfactory or inadequate teaching seen. Too often, weak

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Quality of teaching

planning paid scant attention to prior learning and all students were expected to do the same work regardless of ability or need. This led to lack of understanding, slow progress and underachievement. This means that for too many students, the gap between their performance and that expected of them nationally is not closing rapidly enough. Marking does not consistently provide students with the necessary guidance to help them improve their work, and monitoring and recording of student progress in lessons are weak. There are far too few opportunities for students to develop their spiritual, moral, social and cultural skills. Similarly, too many teachers do not pay enough attention to developing students’ literacy and numeracy skills. Where support is provided directly for disabled students and those who have statements of special educational needs, students make adequate progress. This is not the case for too many of the other students who have special educational needs.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Inspectors judged behaviour and safety to be satisfactory. Just over half of the few parents and carers who responded to the Ofsted questionnaire believe that behaviour in the school is good and most believe that their child is kept safe. The parents interviewed all thought behaviour was good. Students mostly believe that behaviour is good although a minority said lessons were sometimes disrupted by poor behaviour. Students generally behaved well in most lessons and were willing to learn. Students are aware of risks they and others may face in and out of school. They move safely around the school and have behaved sensibly while building work has been undertaken. There are a few recorded incidents of bullying, including homophobic bullying, but students said these were not commonplace. The school keeps good records of incidents, which indicate that action is taken quickly to rectify any problems. There are adequate opportunities in the school curriculum to explore

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

issues relating to homophobic and other forms of bullying. In general, there have been very few recorded incidents of cyber-based or prejudice-based bullying or harassment. Students with behavioural, social and emotional difficulties are given adequate support to help them manage their behaviour and are not now excluded in such numbers as in the past. The management of behaviour is adequate and procedures have led to a rapid fall in the numbers of students excluded overall, including repeat exclusions. Attendance is average. Students on the school council enjoy and take pride in their roles and responsibilities. Students said there were ample opportunities to be involved in clubs and out-of-lesson activities, both before and after school.

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Leadership and management

At the previous inspection, the school was asked to accelerate the rate of students’ progress and secure better achievement. Senior leaders have not secured the rapid improvements that were necessary and, while middle leaders in key subjects have benefited from external support and there have been improvements in mathematics in particular, their capacity to lead improvement remains fragile. Leaders at all levels have not done enough to analyse the performance of different groups of students in order to identify the most urgent areas for improvement. There is insufficient clarity in school and departmental plans about what needs to be done and how to implement the urgent improvements required to secure better achievement and teaching. School self-evaluation is not sufficiently accurate to enable leaders and governors to focus tightly on those aspects that require rapid improvement. Since the last inspection, the governing body has not taken the decisive and challenging

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Leadership and management

action required to improve leadership at all levels. Although its members know the strengths and weaknesses of the school, they do not challenge it effectively enough to secure more rapid progress in learning and literacy skills for all groups of students.

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Leadership and management

School leaders have developed a satisfactory system for tracking progress, which is now supporting quicker identification of students at risk of underachieving and it is complemented by frequent monitoring of the quality of teaching. This is starting to improve weaker practice. However, the resulting data are not analysed in enough detail in terms of the learning of different groups of students in lessons, or the impact of the actions taken on improving achievement over time. Strategies to reach ambitious targets are not rigorous or urgent enough, and are insufficiently shared with students. The leadership and management of teaching and learning at all levels are too variable to secure the necessary improvement in this critical area, because leadership skills are still underdeveloped. As a result of inadequate teaching, together with low achievement in too many subjects and for too many groups of students, the school’s capacity to improve rapidly is inadequate.

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Leadership and management

Recent changes to the curriculum have not yet led to proven impact on students’ achievement. Consequently, the curriculum and systems for providing appropriate support do not meet the learning needs of all students. Students have too few opportunities across the curriculum to consolidate their literacy and numeracy skills. The coordinated provision for students in religious education, personal, social and health education (PSHE) and citizenship, when combined with numerous opportunities in tutor time and assemblies, mean that spiritual, moral, social and cultural issues are addressed adequately and lead to a generally cohesive learning community. The links with local schools and networks have had a beneficial effect on improving some aspects of provision, but these have been limited and have not led to the quickening of pace of overall school improvement required since the last inspection. The impact of the science specialism, despite recent curriculum changes,

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Leadership and management

has similarly been limited in terms of results.

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Leadership and management

The management of both behaviour and attendance is satisfactory, despite some pockets of low level disruption in a minority of lessons. Fixed-term exclusions have been high in the past, but these are now reducing due to more consistent management of behaviour in lessons and around the school. Parents and carers are satisfactorily engaged with the school and are kept up-to-date about their children’s education. Safeguarding policies and procedures meet current national requirements and are secure. However, the school’s failure to meet the learning needs of many of its students means the promotion of equality of opportunity is inadequate.

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Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding These features are highly effective. An outstanding school provides exceptionally well for all its pupils’ needs. Grade 2 Good These are very positive features of a school. A school that is good is serving its pupils well. Grade 3 Satisfactory These features are of reasonable quality. A satisfactory school is providing adequately for its pupils. Grade 4 Inadequate These features are not of an acceptable standard. An inadequate school needs to make significant improvement in order to meet the needs of its pupils. Ofsted inspectors will make further visits until it improves.

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

Nursery schools 46 46 8 0 Primary schools 8 47 40 5 Secondary schools 14 38 40 8 Special schools 28 48 20 4 Pupil referral units 15 50 29 5 All schools 11 46 38 6

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

New school inspection arrangements have been introduced from 1 January 2012. This means that inspectors make judgements that were not made previously. The data in the table above are for the period 1 September 2010 to 31 August 2011 and represent judgements that were made under the school inspection arrangements that were introduced on 1 September 2009. These data are consistent with the latest published official statistics about maintained school inspection outcomes (see www.ofsted.gov.uk ). The sample of schools inspected during 2010/11 was not representative of all schools nationally, as weaker schools are inspected more frequently than good or outstandi ng schools. Primary schools include primary academy converters. Secondary schools include secondary academy converters, sponsor-led academies and city technology colleges. Special schools include special academy converters and non-maintained special schools.

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Type of school Outstanding Good Satisfactory Inadequate

Percentages are rounded and do not always add exactly to 100.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Achievement: the progress and success of a pupil in their learning and development taking account of their attainment.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Attainment: the standard of the pupils’ work shown by test and examination results and in lessons.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Attendance the regular attendance of pupils at school and in lessons, taking into account the school’s efforts to encourage good attendance.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Behaviour how well pupils behave in lessons, with emphasis on their attitude to learning. Pupils’ punctuality to lessons and their conduct around the school.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Capacity to improve: the proven ability of the school to continue improving based on its self-evaluation and what the school has accomplished so far and on the quality of its systems to maintain improvement.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Leadership and management: the contribution of all the staff with responsibilities, not just the governors and headteacher, to identifying priorities, directing and motivating staff and running the school.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Learning: how well pupils acquire knowledge, develop their understanding, learn and practise skills and are developing their competence as learners.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Overall effectiveness: inspectors form a judgement on a school’s overall effectiveness based on the findings from their inspection of the school.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Progress: the rate at which pupils are learning in lessons and over longer periods of time. It is often measured by comparing the pupils’ attainment at the end of a key stage with their attainment when they started.

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Common terminology used by inspectors

Safety how safe pupils are in school, including in lessons; and their understanding of risks. Pupils’ freedom from bullying and harassment. How well the school promotes safety, for example e-learning.

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carers to share with their children. It describes Ofsted’s

main findings from the inspection of their school.

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Inspection of Four Dwellings High School, Birmingham, B32 1RJ

Thank you for the welcome you gave the inspection team when we visited your school. We enjoyed meeting you and you helped us to find out about the school. You told us that you enjoy coming to school and that you are looking forward to having lessons in the new building. Your attendance has improved and you enjoy participating in a range of different activities beyond the classroom.

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Inspection of Four Dwellings High School, Birmingham, B32 1RJ

We found that you are not making as much progress as you should and the school has not improved enough since it was last inspected. Your headteacher and the staff have begun to make improvements but these have not been happening fast enough. The inspection team decided that the school now requires special measures, which means it will receive extra help to tackle weaker areas urgently. Further visits will be made by inspectors to monitor the progress that it is making.

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Inspection of Four Dwellings High School, Birmingham, B32 1RJ

We discussed what we found with your headteacher and governing body. They will focus on improving the school by:

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Inspection of Four Dwellings High School, Birmingham, B32 1RJ

 helping more of you to get better GCSE grades  making sure that more lessons are good or better, so that your progress accelerates  tailoring activities in lessons so that they better meet your individual needs  sharing with you clearly the ‘next steps’ in your learning  checking regularly to make sure that lessons are good for all students, regardless of ability, starting point or background  making sure that you have regular opportunities to develop your literacy and numeracy skills across different subjects  accurately checking that you are on track to make good progress and intervening quickly if you are not.

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Inspection of Four Dwellings High School, Birmingham, B32 1RJ

You can all help by asking your teachers for help when you need it and when you are not sure how to improve your work. We wish you the very best for the future.

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Inspection of Four Dwellings High School, Birmingham, B32 1RJ

Peter Limm Her Majesty's Inspector procedures set out in the guidance 'Complaining about inspections', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk . 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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