Burton PRU

Burton PRU Church Hill Street, Winshill, Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire DE15 0HR

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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

 Committed leadership and decisive action by the executive headteacher and the head of school have resulted in improvements to teaching, the curriculum and outcomes for pupils. Staff morale is high.  Leaders have high ambitions for the pupils. They have a clear understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses.  Governors are committed to the school and provide effective support to leaders in securing improvements in many aspects of the school’s work.  The curriculum contributes well to pupils’ academic progress and personal development. Enrichment activities are helping pupils to develop the skills they need to move successfully to the next stage in their education.  Senior leaders have developed an effective assessment system that tracks individual progress. However, external moderation is not used equally well across all subjects to add reliability and validity to teachers’ judgements of pupils’ work.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Teachers have secure subject knowledge. Questioning is used effectively in some lessons and helps to deepen pupils’ knowledge and probe their thinking. However, this good use of questioning is not consistent across the school  Relationships between pupils and staff are strong. Pastoral care of the pupils in the school and in alternative provision is strong.  Pupils’ behaviour is good. They are developing into confident, articulate learners.  Safeguarding is a strength of the school. All pupils say they feel safe in school. A wide range of external providers are used well to support those pupils and their families that need additional help.  Pupils are carefully prepared for the next stage in their education. In 2018, all pupils gained an accredited qualification and went on to an appropriate post-16 placement.  Although improving, attendance is lower than the national average and persistent absence is

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Work with parents and carers to improve the attendance of pupils who continue to be regularly absent so that these pupils make better progress.  Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment, and thereby pupils’ outcomes, by ensuring that: – questioning is used effectively in lessons to help pupils learn in greater depth – pupils are provided with feedback in line with the school’s assessment policy.  Leaders should increase the use of external moderation to add reliability and validity to teachers’ judgements of pupils’ work.  Leaders should ensure that all year groups have impartial careers advice and guidance.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 Leaders promote a culture of mutual tolerance and respect. Positive relationships between leaders, staff and pupils support pupils’ development effectively. There is a strong team ethos.  Collaborative work with the federated school is developing well. The executive headteacher is effectively facilitating the sharing of good practice across the two schools. For instance, the special educational needs coordinators (SENCos) from the two schools have shared resources to improve the provision for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).  Training for staff is well planned. Leaders use professional development to encourage, challenge and support teachers’ improvement. Training this year has included strategies to help support pupils’ mental health needs in the classroom. Staff value this training and it has contributed to the good quality of teaching.  Leaders routinely monitor the quality of alternative provision. Weekly visits by a

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

member of staff and daily contact with alternative providers ensure that pupils are receiving a good quality of education and that they are well cared for.  The curriculum is broad and balanced and provides many and varied opportunities for pupils to learn. The courses provided help pupils to acquire knowledge, understanding and skills in most aspects of their education, including literacy, mathematical, scientific, social, physical and artistic learning. This supports good progress.  Accredited courses are offered in both academic and vocational subjects. The flexibility of the curriculum enables pupils to pursue their interests and aspirations. For instance, pupils are able to access extended work placements at a local garage. Pupils value this opportunity to learn practical workplace skills.  The wider curriculum contributes well to developing pupils’ mental and personal well- being, their safety, and their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

Enrichment activities effectively contribute to this. Off-site activities feature highly in the school calendar. For instance, inter-PRU sports competitions give pupils the opportunity to represent their school, something they may not have had the chance to do before.  Additional funding is used well to support disadvantaged pupils. Pupils have been offered additional support and activities, including one-to-one support in English and mathematics, counselling and support from the educational psychologist. Consequently, disadvantaged pupils are making good progress.

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Governance of the school

 Governance is strong. The amalgamation of the two management committees from the federated schools has resulted in a management committee with members that come from a wide range of backgrounds and bring important expertise to their roles. A skills audit identified no gaps in their skills.  Governors are effectively fulfilling their role as a critical friend to the school by providing an appropriate mix of challenge and support. They are proactive and forward looking. For instance, they acted on a recommendation from the school improvement partner and set up two sub-committees for finance and teaching and learning. This has enabled governors to hold leaders more closely to account.  Governors take their safeguarding duties seriously. They have a named safeguarding governor who has extensive experience in this aspect of the school’s work. Challenge and support from governors help to ensure that the school offers a high quality of care

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective in both the school and in the alternative provision.  The leadership of safeguarding is strong. The school’s procedures for safeguarding are rigorous.  Staff and leaders have an excellent knowledge of individual pupils and their needs. The daily staff briefing and debriefing are highly effective in sharing information about pupils and their families. Communication between the two sites has been further strengthened by holding these meetings online so all staff can participate and share information about pupils.  The single central record is compliant. The procedures for the recruitment and vetting of staff are understood and used well.  Records relating to child protection are stored securely and are well organised.  Leaders work well with external agencies to support pupils who are at risk or subject to a multi-agency plan. A number of pupils and their families have been referred to a wide

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Safeguarding

range of external agencies this year to provide them with additional help.  Leaders follow up referrals made to children’s social services diligently.  Staff training is up to date. Records relating to staff training are thorough and well organised.  Staff report their concerns, secure in the fact that they will be acted upon quickly and efficiently.  Protocol and procedures for off-site visits are highly effective. Leaders ensure that staff are regularly trained in these procedures so they feel confident when taking pupils out of school. All pupils say they feel safe.  Through the curriculum, assemblies and enrichment activities, pupils are taught how to keep themselves safe. This includes addressing issues in the local area that may put pupils at risk. The police visit the school regularly to discuss these issues with pupils and support them in making positive choices about their behaviour.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

 The respectful relationships between adults and pupils contribute to the school’s positive learning culture. Teachers have secure subject knowledge and they help pupils to develop good behaviours for learning, for example showing respect for the opinion of others. As a result, pupils are confident in offering their views. For instance, a lively discussion about bad losers in sport helped pupils to debate how behaviour in sport relates to pupils’ behaviour in school.  Most teachers give feedback in line with the school’s assessment policy. However, sometimes feedback focuses too much on the effort and presentation of pupils’ work, without giving due attention to helping pupils improve the quality of their work. This limits progress.  When teaching is most effective questioning is used to probe pupils’ responses and challenge their thinking. For example, during enrichment the teacher’s skilful questioning resulted in pupils being able to apply their knowledge of respect in sport to

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

a real-life experience. However, the effective use of questioning to deepen pupils’ knowledge and understanding is not consistently seen across all subjects. This is limiting pupils’ progress.  Additional support provided by adults effectively supports pupils’ learning and builds their confidence and self-esteem. In art, for instance, pupils were happy to share their work with inspectors and spoke with confidence about it.  Teaching in physical education (PE) is strong. The effective use of technology together with precise modelling by the teacher resulted in pupils making good progress in tennis. Pupils speak positively about their achievements in this subject.  Teachers use external moderation well in art, PE and personal and social development to ensure the accuracy of their assessment information. In these subjects, teachers use assessment information well to identify where pupils need additional support and

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

challenge. However, the use of external moderation and the good use of assessment information are not yet consistent across all subjects.  Work in books shows that over a wide range of subjects and year groups, pupils are making good progress. The teacher’s high expectations in science, for example, means that pupils in Year 8 are already successfully completing work at GCSE level.  Parents are given clear information about how well their children are progressing and this is discussed regularly with parents at their children’s progress review meetings.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.  The school is proud of its inclusive ethos. Most pupils come to the school having had a negative experience of education. Most are disengaged. The staff work hard to support these pupils and improve their low self-esteem.  Pupils’ physical well-being is well supported. All pupils take part in physical education lessons. A range of activities are on offer including mountain biking, athletics, table- tennis, tennis and football. Most of these take place at local leisure centres, which enables pupils to find out about the activities on offer in the local area.  Promoting and supporting pupils’ emotional well-being is given high priority. All pupils have a key worker who acts as a mentor. All pupils say they feel well supported in school and have a trusted adult they can talk to.  Displays in corridors help to guide and inform pupils about becoming good citizens.

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Personal development and welfare

 Weekly assemblies give pupils the opportunity to develop their social skills. For instance, pupils and staff talked about why pupils found it difficult to settle in lessons after breaktime. Pupils told them it was because they were no longer allowed to have tea and toast at breaktime and they were hungry! This was reinstated and the number of behaviour incidents after breaktime significantly reduced. Pupils value the opportunity to have a voice and they feel respected.  Leaders carefully monitor and support the welfare of pupils attending alternative provision. While there, pupils are well cared for and safe.  Pupils in Year 11 are provided with independent advice and guidance about their future options from a careers adviser. Key workers take Year 11 pupils to visit post-16 providers. Visitors from local businesses and the army visit the school to give careers advice. This year, four pupils completed a week’s residential with the army. However,

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Personal development and welfare

leaders acknowledge that further work is needed to ensure that careers education and guidance begin in earlier years.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good. The school is calm and orderly at all times during the school day. Staff and pupils speak positively about behaviour.  Leaders routinely evaluate the information they collect about behaviour and use it effectively. For instance, good use is made of the school’s second site to separate pupils who come to the school from the same mainstream school if they have had difficulties in getting along with each other.  Leaders’ information shows that the number of incidents of low-level disruptive behaviour has reduced over time. Incidents of challenging behaviour have also significantly reduced over time. The need to use physical intervention is extremely rare.  The school has never used permanent exclusion as a sanction for poor behaviour. They go above and beyond to meet the needs of the most vulnerable pupils, including educating pupils after school where needed.  The number of fixed-term exclusions and repeat exclusions continue to fall. There were

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Behaviour

no exclusions in the month of June.  Although attendance is low, it shows improvement over time. Case studies show that most pupils make significant improvements to their attendance from very low starting points. Persistent absence, however, remains too high. As a result, learning time is lost.  A small number of pupils are currently on a part-time timetable. However, this is appropriate to their needs. The timetables are reviewed in a timely way.

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Outcomes for pupils Good

 Pupils join the school with low starting points as they have been unsuccessful in their mainstream schools. Most pupils had poor attendance, a few were school refusers, and many had additional SEND needs that had not been previously identified.  While at school, most pupils make good progress in developing literacy and numeracy skills through a range of subjects. Assessment information shows that the longer a pupil is with the school the better their progress is.  Pupils with SEND make good progress. Leaders ensure that they receive appropriate support to meet their needs. While at the school, many are successful in their application for an education, health and care plan. However, despite the school’s best efforts, pupils who need specialist provision do not always access this in a timely manner.  Pupils are carefully prepared for the next stage in their education. During the time in school they are helped to develop the necessary behaviour and attitudes they need to

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Outcomes for pupils Good

succeed. Some pupils move successfully to mainstream schools. All pupils over the last three years have moved on to education, employment or training. This year, virtually all pupils have secured appropriate post-16 provision.  Over time most pupils have achieved good outcomes and many pupils achieve a range of qualifications, including GCSEs. In 2018, all pupils achieved a qualification in English, and most did in mathematics.

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School details

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

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Email address headteacher@kettlebrook.staffs.sch.uk

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Information about this school

 The school is an 11 to 16 pupil referral unit. Most pupils who attend the school have been permanently excluded from their mainstream school. Pupils join the school throughout the school year.  In April 2018, the school joined with Kettlebrook Short Stay school to form the East Staffordshire and Tamworth PRU Federation. An executive headteacher provides strategic leadership for the two schools. A single management committee oversees the two schools.  The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is well above average.  More boys than girls attend the school.  Many pupils join the school with unidentified SEND needs.  Seven pupils are currently educated for part of the week at the school and for the rest of the week at the school’s additional site in Uttoxeter.  Eight pupils attend alternative provision on a part-time basis. The alternative providers include Eagles Nest, MAC Motors, Shire Oak Motorcycles and Project Wired.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors met with the executive headteacher; head of school; other senior leaders; middle leaders and members of the management committee.  An inspector visited an alternative provider.  The lead inspector spoke to a representative from the local authority and the chair of the management committee on the telephone.  Inspectors observed learning in lessons both in the school and off-site.  Inspectors talked to pupils about their learning and their attitudes to, and opinions about, school. Inspectors observed pupils at breaktimes and lunchtimes and as they moved around the school.  Various documents were evaluated, including the school’s action plan and self- evaluation, records of minutes of the management committee meetings, safeguarding information and a range of policies. Information about attendance, behaviour and safety was also analysed. Inspectors checked the school’s website and the single

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Information about this inspection

central record, which contains information on safeguarding checks made on staff.  Inspectors considered the nine responses from staff to Ofsted’s survey. There were insufficient responses from parents to the Ofsted questionnaire, Parent View, to generate a report. There were no free-text responses from parents. Pupils’ views were considered from their responses to a school survey.

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Inspection team

Lesley Yates, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Chris Field 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

In the report, ‘disadvantaged pupils’ refers to those pupils who attract government pupil premium funding: pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years and pupils in care or who left care through adoption or another formal route. www.gov.uk/pupil-premium-information-for-schools-and- alternative-provision-settings .

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Inspection team

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

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 and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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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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