All Saints School

All Saints School School Road, Lessingham, Stalham, Norwich, Norfolk NR12 0DJ

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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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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Inadequate

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Over time, leaders and directors have not ensured pupils’ safety. Systems for assessing the suitability of staff have, until recently, not been fit for purpose. Vulnerable children have been at risk because the school’s systems for managing and recording concerns have been poorly organised.  The school’s proprietor, who is also the managing director, has not ensured that all of the independent school standards are met or held leaders sufficiently to account for the quality of the school’s provision.  Until recently, leaders’ evaluation of the school’s strengths and weaknesses lacked precision. The action and accessibility plan priorities have been pursued too slowly.  There is insufficient leadership capacity to bring about rapid improvements. Staff have not received sufficient well-tailored training to enable them to improve their teaching.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The recently appointed interim headteacher has a clear understanding of what needs to improve. Together with other newly appointed leaders, she is working with drive and determination to make the necessary changes.  Leaders have not ensured that the progress pupils make and the extent to which teaching promotes it are monitored carefully enough to make improvements.  Schemes of learning have provided insufficient detail about what should be taught and how pupils’ work should be assessed. The curriculum has lacked coherence for too long.  Expectations of what pupils can achieve are not high enough. Some pupils have completed courses that are too easy and they have not achieved highly enough.  Too often, teachers do not use the information they have about what pupils know to plan appropriately challenging activities. This limits the progress of older pupils, particularly the most able, in mathematics.  Teaching does not encourage pupils to think

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Pupils attend school regularly and behave well, both during lessons and at social times. They enjoy positive relationships with staff and with each other. The school promotes some aspects of their personal development well. Compliance with regulatory requirements

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The school must take action to meet the requirements of the schedule to the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014 and associated requirements. The details are listed in the full report.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Urgently address the weaknesses in the school’s systems for ensuring pupils’ safety and well-being by: – making sure that all historic child protection records relating to current pupils are collected and stored in a single secure location – ensuring that child protection records are well maintained, including details of actions taken and any resolution or necessary next steps – using the information contained within records to build up an overview of the circumstances of individual vulnerable pupils and to plan appropriate actions in order to meet their needs – ensuring that a suitably trained member of staff can take leadership of the school’s safeguarding arrangements in the absence of the designated safeguarding lead.  Improve leadership, management and governance and ensure compliance with all of the independent school standards by: – ensuring that newly appointed leaders receive the training and support they need so

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

that they can pursue the necessary improvements quickly and effectively – embedding the recently created systems for monitoring, evaluating and reviewing the work of the school so that self-evaluation is accurate and appropriate actions taken – ensuring that the new curriculum plans are fully implemented and that the guidance given to teachers about what to teach and how to meet the needs of all pupils is clear – using the information about pupils’ starting points to set appropriately challenging targets so that all have high expectations about pupils’ progress – holding teachers to account for their contribution to school improvement, ensuring that the training they receive matches individuals’ needs – ensuring that the proprietor establishes systems that hold the school’s leaders to account effectively – ensuring that the requirements of schedule 10 of the Equality Act 2010 are fully met.  Improve the effectiveness of teaching, learning and assessment so that pupils make the

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

good progress of which they are capable by: – ensuring that teachers carefully monitor pupils’ progress and use this information to plan and sequence teaching and learning activities that stretch pupils in their learning – ensuring that teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve are sufficiently high – ensuring that questioning and other techniques encourage pupils to think deeply – making sure that the activities pupils complete are sufficiently challenging, particularly for the most able pupils and in mathematics.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

 Leaders, and the school’s proprietor, have not taken sufficiently rapid action to improve aspects of the school’s provision since the previous standard inspection or to address the areas for improvement identified during the subsequent progress monitoring inspections.  Leaders’ evaluation of the effectiveness of the school’s provision has lacked depth, precision and accuracy. This has prevented leaders from prioritising improvements appropriately or being fully aware of what has needed to be done. Consequently, some of the independent school standards remain unmet.  Until recently, there has been insufficient capacity to bring about the necessary changes because the headteacher has been the only member of staff with formal leadership responsibility. Additional leaders have been appointed very recently but they have not been in post for long enough to implement their well-judged plans for improvement.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

 Although the school’s curriculum is broad, it has lacked coherence because planning has been poor. Subject curriculum plans have not been designed to meet the learning needs of pupils of differing abilities, including the most able.  Until very recently, leaders have not made sure that teachers gain an accurate enough understanding of what pupils know, understand and can do when they join the school. The systems used to monitor pupils’ progress have not done so precisely and securely. This means that leaders do not have an accurate understanding of how well different groups of pupils are progressing over time.  Leaders do not know how well teaching is meeting pupils’ needs. Until recently, their checks on the effectiveness of teaching and its impact upon pupils’ progress have lacked rigour. As a result, training for teachers has too often not been focused precisely enough to enable staff to develop their practice.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

 School leaders have not addressed the deficiencies identified in the accessibility plan, as identified at the time of the most recent monitoring inspection.  The curriculum covers a wide range of subjects. Leaders make effective use of alternative providers to access subjects and courses that meet pupils’ needs and enable them to obtain useful and accredited qualifications.  Leaders support pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well. Pupils gain a good understanding of other people’s faiths and beliefs. They understand fundamental British values, including the importance of democracy and the rule of law. Pupils are tolerant of those who have different beliefs or lifestyles and treat all members of the school community with respect.  Responses to Ofsted’s staff questionnaire were positive about the work of the interim headteacher and the changes that she and other recently appointed leaders are pursuing.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

Pupils’ views were similarly positive.  The school communicates well with parents and carers. They have regular opportunities to meet with staff and to discuss their children’s progress. Parents receive a full written report annually.

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Governance

 The school’s directors have not held leaders to account for their performance. They have been too ready to accept the assurances that they have been given about standards, without testing the accuracy of these with sufficient rigour.  Over time, the directors have not ensured the safety of all pupils in the school. Safeguarding checks, systems and procedures have not been appropriately robust.  Actions to ensure compliance with each of the independent school standards have been too slow and, in some cases, absent. The school’s directors have yet to address the deficiencies in the accessibility plan that were identified at the time of the most recent progress monitoring inspection.  The directors are working well with the interim headteacher to create additional leadership capacity and more effective means by which to hold leaders accountable for standards. It is too soon to determine the adequacy of these new arrangements.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are not effective. A safeguarding audit carried out by Norfolk local authority representatives in July 2018 highlighted a range of concerns about safeguarding policies and practices at the school. Among these was the concern that, due to fragmented recording systems, it was not possible for leaders to readily build a clear picture of the case histories and risks relating to individual vulnerable pupils.  During this inspection, leaders initially advised inspectors that few, if any, records relating to safeguarding concerns about individual pupils had been retained. New files were therefore being created so that all concerns about pupils could be stored in a single place. It later became evident that some historic safeguarding records relating to current pupils did in fact exist, but had either been archived or were stored in different locations.  As a result of the deficiencies in record-keeping, staff have not been able to access all of

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Safeguarding

the information about vulnerable pupils, their contexts and the actions being taken to support some pupils and their families. This has limited their ability to make timely and well-judged decisions about what actions to take to keep pupils as safe as possible.  Until very recently, leaders have not ensured that all the required pre-employment checks were carried out prior to recruiting staff. Records relating to these checks were incomplete. The school did not have a safer recruitment policy. Some safeguarding policies were either not in place or were out of date.  At the time of this inspection, only one member of staff, the interim headteacher, was carrying out day-to-day duties as a designated safeguarding lead. She is ably starting to make the necessary changes but leadership capacity remains insufficient in this respect because staff who can deputise in her absence are yet to be selected or trained.

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Safeguarding

 The interim headteacher has ensured that all members of staff have received training in all aspects of safeguarding children at the beginning of the current academic year. Staff were able to tell inspectors about the signs of concern that they would look out for and what they would do about them.  The school has published a suitable safeguarding policy on its website.  Leaders have obtained the necessary assurances that those who work at alternative providers have undergone the relevant pre-employment checks.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

 The quality of teaching, learning and assessment is too variable. Where learning is less effective, the work that pupils complete is insufficiently challenging. In mathematics, pupils in key stages 3 and 4 do not make as much progress as they should.  Teachers often do not have accurate enough information about what it is that pupils already know and can do when they join the school. This means that they do not plan learning activities that will enable pupils to make as much progress from their starting points as they might.  Too often, teachers do not check what pupils have understood or encourage pupils to think deeply. When this happens, pupils move on before their understanding is secure or before they have had the opportunity to broaden or deepen it.  Where pupils learn best, teachers plan activities that build on what they already know and that enable them to apply their knowledge and to solve problems. Teachers give pupils

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

time to think before they answer questions that stretch them and extend their learning.  Teachers have not routinely made use of the targets within pupils’ education, health and care (EHC) plans or personal education plans to inform the planning to meet individual pupils’ needs. Too often, the targets have themselves lacked precision.  Relationships between staff and pupils are very positive, and adults act quickly to meet the needs of pupils who are encountering difficulty emotionally and behaviourally. As a result, pupils usually focus well on the tasks that they are given and demonstrate positive attitudes to their learning.  The atmosphere in lessons is often lively, as pupils are keen to engage and to discuss what they are learning. Such a classroom environment is usually conducive to learning. Teachers are skilled at restoring calm on the rare occasions when pupils’ behaviour disrupts their focus.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

 Support staff work well in partnership with teachers to meet the needs of individual pupils by enabling them to complete tasks themselves without too much adult help.  Pupils told inspectors that they enjoy their learning and that their interactions with staff, together with their learning, boost their self-belief and confidence. One pupil, who echoed the views of many, said: ‘I can get on and learn here better than at my last school. I didn’t enjoy learning then, but I do now.’

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is inadequate. This is because aspects of the school’s arrangements to safeguard pupils have been ineffective over an extended period of time.  Leaders have not ensured that information relating to concerns about individual pupils’ welfare has been kept in a well-organised and readily accessible manner. This has limited leaders’ capacity to maintain an overview of the circumstances and needs of individual vulnerable pupils, together with any risks that they might be facing. As a result, leaders have been unable to plan appropriate actions to promote pupils’ safety, prioritise their welfare and make provision for their personal development.  Staff promote many aspects of pupils’ personal development and welfare well. They recognise when pupils are worried or are experiencing frustration and manage any changes to pupils’ routines appropriately and with sensitivity. Typically, this enables pupils

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Personal development and welfare

to cope with new challenges which they might otherwise find difficult.  The range of activities available to pupils is broad, and pupils value engaging in experiences that, as one put it, ‘I would probably have never had the chance to do if I didn’t come to this school.’ Many pupils complete the Duke of Edinburgh’s bronze or silver Awards, all participate in annual dramatic productions and music is popular. The school is rightly proud of the success that pupils are supported to achieve within competitive sports, including, in some cases, at county or European levels.  Pupils appreciate the opportunities to contribute to school life and to develop their own interests and skills outside of the classroom. They are rightly proud of the contribution that they make, for example as house captains, sports captains and play monitors.  Pupils learn how to stay safe in a variety of situations through their personal, social,

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Personal development and welfare

health and economic education. They gain an understanding of how to stay safe online, including when using social networking sites. Pupils articulately explained to inspectors how they minimise the different sorts of risks that they face.  Pupils can choose from a broad range of enrichment activities. This encourages them to socialise well and effectively promotes their personal development.  Staff work with a range of external agencies, including social care professionals, to make sure that pupils’ social, emotional, medical and physical needs are met effectively.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good. This is because staff are effective in meeting the needs of pupils, including those who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities.  Pupils typically concentrate well during lessons when they are completing activities that match their needs. They are keen to answer questions and contribute thoughtfully to discussions. Pupils carefully consider what their peers and their teachers have to say. When poor behaviour happens, it is dealt with swiftly, calmly and well.  During break and lunch periods, pupils move around the school site calmly. They socialise in a companionable manner and interact positively with the adults who supervise them. Pupils told inspectors that ‘Everyone looks out for each other here. The school is like a family, and everyone accepts it if someone is different.’  Pupils say that bullying happens rarely and that, when it does happen, adults’ swift action

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Behaviour

usually prevents it from continuing. They told inspectors that they rarely hear homophobic or racist language. The school’s monitoring confirms this.  Pupils enjoy coming to school. Most attend well, including many whose attendance was low at their previous schools. Pupils with complex medical issues receive effective support that helps to minimise their absence. The care and support that staff provide for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities ensure that these pupils’ attendance is in line with the national average.  Pupils who study courses at Great Yarmouth College and Easton and Otley College are accompanied by staff and attend well. The school receives regular, and positive, reports from the providers about pupils’ behaviour.  Pupils treat their school environment with respect. During the inspection, no graffiti was seen and very little litter was evident.

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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

 A very high proportion of pupils at the school have SEN and/or disabilities and about two thirds have an EHC plan, a personal education plan or both. The attainment of most pupils cannot meaningfully be compared with other pupils nationally.  Weaknesses in the school’s tracking of pupils’ progress, particularly relating to their starting points, make it difficult to judge how much progress pupils make over time. The recent work to sharpen the assessment of pupils’ work and the progress they make is not fully embedded.  Expectations of what some pupils can achieve have sometimes been too low because leaders have not always established what it is that pupils know and can do when they join the school or set appropriately ambitious targets for their progress. As a result, some most-able pupils have not been given challenging work to do and have, in the past, been entered for insufficiently demanding qualifications.

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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

 Pupils enjoy reading. Inspectors listened to pupils read. Most are able to sound out combinations of letters so that they can pronounce unfamiliar words, but a few lack the appropriate strategies to be able to do so.  Too few current key stage 3 and key stage 4 pupils are making as much progress in mathematics as they might. This is because the work they complete is either too easy for them or they find explanations lack precision, which limits their understanding.  The outcomes for pupils in key stage 4 have been variable over recent years. In 2017, the proportion of pupils who gained the equivalent of a grade C at GCSE in both English and mathematics was close to the national average. School leaders presented inspectors with detailed and compelling examples of the kinds of challenges and barriers to learning that pupils have faced and overcome during their time at the school. Given what these

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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

contexts indicate about their starting points, many of these pupils clearly made good progress during their time at All Saints.  The small number of key stage 2 pupils – in what leaders refer to as the ‘junior’ class – are typically making good progress across a range of subjects. This is particularly true of their written work. Pupils develop their sentence structure and paragraphing well and many show an understanding of more complex literary techniques, such as the use of irony. They have made less progress over time in science.  Pupils who follow courses at Great Yarmouth College and Easton and Otley College make good progress in their catering and other courses.  Numerous case studies provided to inspectors, together with conversations with pupils, confirm that pupils grow in confidence during their time at the school. They develop their capacity to interact well with others, do things for themselves and respond with resilience

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Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

to difficulty. As a result, they make a positive contribution to the school and wider community.  The school’s core aim is for pupils to move on to further education, training or employment as appropriate to their needs, aspirations and abilities when they leave the school. Information about pupils’ destinations after leaving is incomplete. However, leaders’ detailed case studies indicate that most pupils go on to further education, training or employment that is suitable for their interests, abilities and aspirations.

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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

Headteacher Mrs S Gothard (interim headteacher)

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School details

Email address office@allsaintslessingham.co.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 22 November 2016

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Information about this school

 All Saints is a privately owned day school. The school opened in 1987. The school is registered with the Department for Education (DfE) to admit 85 pupils.  The school’s proprietor is also the managing director. There is one other director.  The school caters for pupils of all abilities and has 44 pupils who have EHC plans for SEN and/or disabilities.  Five pupils are looked after by their local authorities.  The current headteacher has been serving on an interim basis in the absence of the substantive headteacher since September 2018.  The school makes use of the following alternative providers: Great Yarmouth College and Easton and Otley College.  The school does not use supply staff.  The most recent standard inspection of the school was in November 2016. At that time, the school was judged inadequate. Thirteen of the independent school standards were not met and the associated requirements of the Equality Act 2010 were not met.

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Information about this school

 The DfE issued the school with a notice on 12 January 2017.  Since the 2016 standard inspection, Ofsted has conducted two monitoring inspections and an evaluation of an action plan: – February 2017: an evaluation of the school’s action plan for the unmet standards was deemed not acceptable – 17 May 2017: there was a progress monitoring inspection when independent school standards were not met – 22 May 2018: there was a progress monitoring inspection when independent school standards were not met.

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Information about this inspection

 This standard inspection was conducted at the request of the DfE.  This inspection incorporated information about the school’s progress in meeting the independent school standards that were not met at the most recent standard inspection and the subsequent progress monitoring inspections.  This inspection included a tour of the school, led by the interim headteacher, visiting each class.  Inspectors observed pupils’ learning across the school and in a range of subjects.  Inspectors examined pupils’ books and considered pupils’ work during lessons in a wide range of subjects to gauge their progress over time.  Over the course of this inspection, inspectors held meetings with the proprietor, who is also a director, and another director, the interim headteacher, other leaders, pupils and staff, and parents. Pupils were spoken with informally during the inspection days.  Inspectors reviewed documents, including school policies, child protection and

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Information about this inspection

safeguarding information, the school’s improvement plans, minutes of meetings and the attendance and admissions registers.  Inspectors considered parental views, including 19 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View. Written comments provided through Parent View were also considered.  Inspectors considered replies from members of staff to a questionnaire provided by Ofsted.

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Inspection team

Jason Howard, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Annex. Compliance with regulatory requirements

The school must meet the following independent school standards.

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Annex. Compliance with regulatory requirements

 The proprietor must ensure that: – a written policy on the curriculum, supported by appropriate plans and schemes of work, which provides for the matters specified in sub-paragraph (2) is drawn up and implemented effectively; – the written policy, plans and schemes of work take into account the ages, aptitudes and needs of all pupils, including those pupils with an education, health and care (EHC) plan (paragraph 2(1), 2(1)(a), 2(1)(b), 2(1)(b)(i)).  The proprietor must ensure that the teaching at the school: – enables pupils to acquire new knowledge and make good progress according to their ability so that they increase their understanding and develop their skills in the subjects taught – involves well-planned lessons and effective teaching methods, activities and management of class time – shows a good understanding of aptitudes, needs and prior attainment of the pupils, and also ensures that these are taken into account in the planning of lessons

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Annex. Compliance with regulatory requirements

– demonstrates good knowledge and understanding of the subject matter being taught – demonstrates that a framework is in place to assess pupils’ work regularly and thoroughly and use information from that assessment to plan teaching so that pupils can progress (paragraph 3, 3(a), 3(c), 3(d), 3(e), 3(g)).

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Part 3. Welfare, health and safety of pupils

 The proprietor must ensure that arrangements are made to safeguard and promote the welfare of pupils at the school; and that such arrangements have regard to any guidance issued by the Secretary of State (paragraph 7, 7(a), 7(b)).

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Part 8. Quality of leadership in and management of schools

 The proprietor must ensure that persons with leadership and management responsibilities at the school: – demonstrate good skills and knowledge appropriate to their role so that the independent standards are met consistently – fulfil their responsibilities effectively so that the independent school standards are met consistently – actively promote the well-being of pupils (paragraph 34(1), 34(1)(a), 34(1)(b), 34(1)(c)).

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Part 8. Quality of leadership in and management of schools

The school must meet the following requirement.  The proprietor must ensure that arrangements are made to fulfil duties under schedule 10 of the Equality Act 2010. 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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Part 8. Quality of leadership in and management of schools

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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Part 8. Quality of leadership in and management of schools

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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Part 8. Quality of leadership in and management of schools

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Part 8. Quality of leadership in and management of schools

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Part 8. Quality of leadership in and management of schools

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Part 8. Quality of leadership in and management of schools

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Part 8. Quality of leadership in and management of schools

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