Brian Jackson College

Brian Jackson College Vision House, Units 1–6 Grove Mills, High Street, Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire WF16 0AD

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Trustees, leaders and staff at the school have an absolute passion and commitment to do the best for their pupils. They have created learning environments where pupils feel supported and safe.  Pupils say that they very much value the second chance that they have at the school following their unsuccessful experiences in mainstream schools.  The trustees and leaders have ensured that the independent school standards are met.  Leaders ensure a strong culture of safeguarding in the school. Staff are acutely aware of the potential dangers that pupils face. They are vigilant and work very closely with a wide variety of agencies to foster pupils’ well-being effectively.  Leaders ensure that all staff are very well trained. As a result, staff are skilled at recognising pupil’s complex behavioural needs and work hard to remove the barriers that reduce pupils’ ability to learn.  Pupils are well prepared for life in modern

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

Britain, and their personal, spiritual, moral and cultural development is fostered well.  Many pupils want to achieve academic qualifications. As a result of effective teaching, learning and assessment, increasing numbers gain GCSE qualifications and other awards.  Teachers’ work in English is particularly strong but the leadership recognise that more could be done to encourage pupils to read more regularly and widely.  The leadership has developed a curriculum that is closely tailored to the needs of pupils. However, there is a need to strengthen what is taught in science.  Pupils’ attendance has significantly improved in the last year. Some pupils, who arrive at the school having been out of education for considerable lengths of time, make the most rapid improvements in attendance. Leaders are aware that there is more to be done to improve attendance further.  The school has made strong progress since the

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

last inspection. However, policy documents do not reflect the good practice that is taking place in the school. Leaders are also aware that they need to refine their analysis of data to more clearly evaluate the school’s current progress.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The school meets the requirements of the schedule to the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014 (‘the independent school standards’) and associated requirements.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of leadership and management by: – ensuring that school policies are more closely tailored to reflect the good practice that is taking place in the school – improving the analysis of data to ensure that clear evaluations of the school’s performance can be made.  Improve pupils’ outcomes by: – improving what is taught in science so that pupils make more progress in this subject – encouraging pupils to read more regularly and widely by providing them with a variety of appropriate reading material.  Develop strategies to further improve pupils’ attendance.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 Leaders are enthusiastic about the school and highly ambitious for its future. They model the school’s ethos well and have a commitment to do the best for all pupils.  Leaders ensure that the school consistently meets all the requirements of the independent school standards.  The transition of pupils into the school is effective. This is as a result of accurate assessments of pupils’ social and emotional development which enables staff to create a bespoke nurture programme. In addition, pupils benefit from staff training, key worker allocations and access to a wide range of counselling, psychologist, substance abuse and other support services. As a result, pupils rapidly respond to the school’s high expectations for behaviour and attitudes to learning.  Leaders provide staff with a wide range of training opportunities. There is a strong focus on the management of pupils’ behaviour and their well-being. Consequently, staff form a

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

cohesive and highly skilled team. They greet pupils at the start of the day and play games with them at break and lunchtimes. Regular meetings ensure that information about pupils’ behaviour and attitudes is shared appropriately.  Parents and carers value the communication that they have with the school. Each parent spoken with commented on the positive effect that the school has had on their child’s life, including their academic progress.  The curriculum on offer is closely aligned to the school’s ethos. Core subjects, such as English and mathematics are complemented by a strong personal, social, and health education (PSHE) programme. These lessons, along with finance lessons, sessions offered by a variety of visiting groups, visits to local museums, galleries and a pumpkin farm, for example, foster British values and support pupils to become economically active members of British society. The narrow content of the science curriculum limits pupils’ opportunities

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

to make strong progress in this subject.  Pupils also benefit from a variety of vocational opportunities including motorcycle maintenance and hairdressing.  Additional funding that the school receives for disadvantaged pupils and those with education, health and care plans is clearly accounted for. The school uses this money to ensure there is additional support for these pupils across all aspects of school life. As a consequence, pupils show increased confidence, their behaviour is managed well, and they make strong progress in academic subjects.  Some aspects of the school’s documentation have not kept pace with the rapid progress that has been made since the last inspection. Several policy documents are generic, repetitive or dated. They do not reflect the good practice that is taking place in the school. Similarly, although they have a wealth of data about the school’s performance in a number of areas, leaders do not analyse this information well enough to have a full

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

understanding of the effect of their actions on improving the school’s progress.

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Governance

 Trustees have created a governance committee of people who bring a wealth of experience to the leadership of the school. In addition, a chief executive officer has responsibility for the line management of the headteacher. Trustees are committed to the school and share a vision for its future development. They receive regular reports from the headteacher and also visit the school frequently. As a result, they know the school well and contribute towards its self-evaluation and strategic direction.  Governors are very aware of the needs of the young people that are admitted to the school and of the community in which they live. This is at the heart of the school’s expansion plans. However, they are also a financially astute body and are very aware of the need to manage carefully the growth of the school.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.  The safeguarding policy is available on the school’s website and is compliant with the latest government’s guidance.  Leaders foster a strong safeguarding culture. All staff receive safeguarding and ‘Prevent’ duty training and are acutely aware of the hazards that young people face in the locality, including gang culture and sexual exploitation. Pupils say that they feel safe and that they know that they have staff to speak to if they need help.  Pupils receive very comprehensive education about the risks that they may face as they grow up. During the inspection, pupils received a presentation by the police about knife crime and attended a fire service programme intended to develop the pupils’ determination and emotional resilience. In addition, the school nurse regularly visits the school to carry out health checks and discuss health matters with pupils.

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Safeguarding

 Pupils learn about radicalisation and terrorism in PSHE lessons. During a tutorial session some pupils were discussing a news item. Their conversation, led by a skilful teacher, included sharing opinions about a person who had been recruited by a terrorist organisation.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

 Teachers and support staff are effective in managing pupils’ behaviour. They know their pupils well, plan effectively, have high expectations and build strong relationships. They are swift to challenge the use of derogatory language and pupils respond positively to these requests.  Staff show patience and kindness towards pupils and are skilled at using their voices, humour and questioning to maintain a peaceful and productive working atmosphere.  All pupils at the school have a variety of special educational needs and teachers plan effectively to meet these. High ratios of staff to pupils ensure that individual pupils receive appropriate support to overcome barriers to learning.  Lessons are often appropriately challenging. During the inspection, it was observed in English that pupils were challenged to understand how a writer structured a piece of text to interest the reader. In art, an enthusiastic teacher was challenging pupils to use their

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

skills to produce a drawing of an enlarged area of a sweet wrapper.  Most teachers also skilfully interlink a range of tasks and real-world events to motivate and at the same time broaden pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural education. Thus, ‘Pi day’ was celebrated in a mathematics lesson with real pies, a lesson on inflation was linked to Brexit, and work on newspaper reporting included a discussion about avalanches.  The school provides parents with a detailed annual report about their child’s progress. This includes comments from each subject area and a statement about behaviour and attendance. In addition, parents value regular telephone calls from staff where they can share in their child’s success.  In most of the lessons time is spent well, and the pupils settle quickly to learning. In a small number of cases, teachers underestimate the ability of some pupils and their progress is slower as a result.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development is good.  The school’s ethos and culture promotes all aspects of pupils’ welfare. Staff help pupils with previously unsuccessful experiences of school to overcome the barriers that exist and re-engage well with education. One pupil said, ‘They give us a future.’  The school ensures that every opportunity is taken to foster personal development as well as pupils’ spiritual, social, moral and cultural education. As a result, this is a strength of the school.  Personal, social and health education lessons are very well planned. During the inspection, a lesson on the difference between sexual consent and rape was led by two teachers who worked highly effectively together. The pupils in this lesson engaged in an extremely mature discussion and responded well when challenged by teachers about stereotypes and some opinions that were expressed.  Pupils say that there is very little bullying, and this is confirmed by school records. Pupils

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Personal development and welfare

are well informed about equality and the protected characteristics. They recognise and respect the diversity in the school’s staffing complement and show great tolerance for others.  Pupils take pride in their work and have positive attitudes to learning. The presentation of their work in exercise books is commendable. In addition, they are enthusiastic about cooking and are proud of their achievements. Swiss rolls and chicken Kiev, for example, have been made to a very high standard.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good.  Pupils often come to the school having behaved very poorly in their previous schools.  The school’s behaviour records show that incidents of pupils’ poor behaviour drop dramatically within the first half-term of the school year. Similarly, the need for exclusion also rapidly drops. In addition, there has been no need for staff to use physical restraint since the last inspection. This is a testimony to the wrap-around nature of the care and support that the school provides.  Pupils move around the school in an orderly manner and are polite and welcoming to visitors. There is no damage or graffiti to be found on either of the school sites.  A high proportion of pupils start the school having had either little education or periods of prolonged absence. While pupils’ attendance rates often remain below average, they improve rapidly once pupils arrive and settle into the school. Although parents and pupils

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Behaviour

speak highly of the inclusive and family atmosphere which encourages better attendance, leaders say that a small number of pupils are still persistently absent.

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Outcomes for pupils Good

 The school has effectively raised academic standards in recent years. By increasing the level of challenge, more pupils are enjoying success in functional skills examinations in a range of subjects and to a higher level. In addition, the school has recently introduced GCSE examinations and achieved a 100% pass rate in English language, and high pass rates in mathematics and religious studies.  The work that pupils produce in English is outstanding. Several are highly productive and can write at length using sophisticated language. The character analysis they produce is incisive and their creative writing incorporates intelligent use of adjectives and adverbs.  In mathematics, pupils are showing progress in their mastery of number operations. The functional skills programmes have motivated pupils to attempt problem-solving exercises and be successful; this is because the problems are grounded in ‘real world’ examples,

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Outcomes for pupils Good

such as tiling a floor.  Pupils’ work shows good progress in most subjects, particularly religious studies, where they demonstrate a strong understanding of the terminology used in different faiths.  Pupils are well supported in preparing for their futures. Impartial advice is complemented by careers work in lessons and the wide variety of visitors and trips, for example to a local university. As a result, pupils have increased confidence and many now aspire to join apprenticeships and go to local colleges to further their education.  Children who have education, health and care plans make strong progress from their starting points.  Although pupils are often confident readers, many say that they do not read widely or often outside of their English lessons. The school does not have a good range of reading resources for pupils to access to develop their reading skills.  In some cases, the same pupils do not produce work in other subjects of an equal

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Outcomes for pupils Good

standard to that which they produce, for example, in English. This often reflects a lower level of motivation and this is particularly seen in science where the programme is comparatively weak and over-reliant on worksheets.

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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

Website www.yorkshirechildrenscentre.org.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 1–3 March 2016

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Information about this school

 Brian Jackson College is an independent special day school for up to 80 boys and girls between the ages of 13 and 18 years. There are currently 41 pupils on roll. The school is owned by the Yorkshire Children’s Centre, which is part of the National Children’s Centre.  There are currently no pupils on roll aged 13. The school is waiting for further development of its facilities to be completed before it opens to pupils over the age of 16.  The school does not have any religious character.  The school was last inspected in March 2016.  There are currently six pupils on roll who have an education, health and care plan. These pupils are referred to the school by the local authority. Other pupils are referred to the school by local secondary schools.  The school offers full-time education for pupils who have social, emotional and behavioural needs and issues of non-attendance and high exclusion rates at their previous

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Information about this school

schools. Some pupils join the school at points during the school year other than that which is normally expected.  The school is also able to offer temporary placements for pupils who have been temporarily excluded from local authority mainstream schools. At the moment, there are no pupils being admitted in this category.  A large proportion of pupils are disadvantaged and are supported through the pupil premium funding, which is additional funding given to schools for those pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and for children looked after.  There are no pupils currently attending any alternative education provision.  Pupils take part in physical education at a number of off-site purpose-built facilities. In addition, most pupils take part in vocational activities at approved local centres.  The school’s mission is, ‘To offer a fresh start with a new perspective; educating, guiding

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Information about this school

and supporting our pupils.’ The school’s vision is, ‘Where all young people achieve their full potential in life.’

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Information about this inspection

 This inspection was carried out over two and a half days with a day of notice.  The inspector toured all buildings currently used by the school, both inside and outside. The school’s main site, Vision House, is in Heckmondwike. The second site is Wellington House, which is seven miles away in Huddersfield.  The inspector observed teaching and learning in a range of lessons and made some shorter visits to classrooms. The headteacher observed most lessons jointly with the inspector.  The inspector held meetings with the headteacher, middle leaders, pupils, the chief executive officer and trustees.  The work of several pupils was reviewed.  Pupils’ behaviour in lessons and around the school was observed. The inspector met formally and informally with pupils.  The inspector evaluated a range of documentation, including leaders’ evaluations of the school and development plans, admissions and attendance registers, policies, monitoring

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Information about this inspection

information, child protection and safeguarding information, and reports for the trustees. The inspector also looked closely at all other documents and policies as required as part of the independent school standards.  Consideration was given to the school’s evidence of communication with parents. There were no responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View. However, the inspector spoke with several parents. No staff or pupils responded to Ofsted’s online questionnaires.

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Inspection team

Steve Rogers, lead inspector 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

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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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

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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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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