Notley High School and Sixth Form

Inspection of Notley High School and Braintree Sixth Form Notley Road, Braintree, Essex CM7 1WY

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Inadequate Personal development Requires improvement Leadership and management Inadequate Sixth-form provision Requires improvement Previous inspection grade Good 25–26 February 2020

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What is it like to attend this school?

Name calling and bullying are features of everyday life for too many pupils. This is often because of pupils’ individual characteristics, such as the way they look. There are throwaway comments about different sexualities and taunts about wearing glasses. This creates a culture where pupils are not comfortable being themselves.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Attitudes in the sixth form are more positive. Although sixth-form students recall poor experiences in Years 7 to 11, things get better when students move into Year 12.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils do not learn as much as they should. This is partly because lessons are routinely interrupted by poor behaviour. It is also because the curriculum is not structured or taught well enough.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Too often, too little is expected of pupils. They are not challenged to achieve as well as they could. Trustees have begun to implement changes in the curriculum, such as reviews of practice in the school, which are starting to bring about change. However, pupils are not accessing a good-quality curriculum or good learning opportunities.

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better?

The behaviour of a significant minority of pupils has a detrimental impact on the education of many. These pupils routinely interrupt lessons in key stages 3 and 4. The systems for improving their behaviour are not working. The same pupils are regularly removed from lessons. They disregard the school’s behaviour policy. Being excluded from school does not stop the same pupils continuing to behave poorly.

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better?

Behaviour out of lessons is also concerning. Pushing and shoving in corridors make pupils feel unsafe. Bullying and teasing mean that pupils cannot be free to be themselves. This is not a healthy environment in which to grow up and learn. Some pupils seek sanctuary in the library, as they do not feel safe in the school.

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better?

Although not inadequate, there are weaknesses in the quality of education at the school. Leaders do not do enough to ensure that pupils learn what they need to at appropriate or required times. In art, for example, the work pupils do in key stage 3 is not considered in the context of what they learned at key stage 2. In mathematics, curriculum plans do not accurately reflect the rate at which teachers and pupils complete the work. Late changes are being made to what pupils currently in Year 11 business studies classes are being taught. Pupils have not learned sufficient amounts previously, and there are now gaps in their knowledge.

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better?

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are not supported to learn as well as they could. Staff have not been trained in how to meet pupils’ needs. Leaders do not check the work teachers do to support pupils. They do not 25–26 February 2020

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have high expectations of what teachers should do to help pupils. This means pupils do not get enough help when they need it.

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Leaders are in the process of developing provision for pupils’ personal development. They have introduced a curriculum to teach resilience. This is in its infancy and taught more effectively in key stage 3 than in key stage 4 . The ‘pledge passport’ allows leaders to monitor participation in extra-curricular activities. This shows that participation in these activities by disadvantaged pupils is low. Leaders are seeking to address this. Sixth-form students enjoy aspects of the weekly personal development tutorials they have but would prefer some of these to be more precisely focused on their needs.

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Leaders, governors and trustees have taken some positive steps to improve aspects of the quality of education. They have brought in new approaches to teaching, such as focusing on teachers’ use of questions to develop pupils’ understanding. These techniques are not embedded and are often not used well. The leadership of the sixth form has been overhauled, and this is beginning to have an impact. Governors and trustees have adapted the way in which they monitor the work of school leaders. However, these changes have not had sufficient impact at this stage. At key stages 3, 4 and 5, pupils achieve less well than they should.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are not effective.

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Safeguarding

Records of recruitment and vetting checks are kept in line with requirements. Leaders have systems in place to ensure that staff concerns about pupils’ welfare are recorded and followed up. Governors and trustees check that systems for safeguarding pupils are in place.

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Safeguarding

These systems are undermined by the school’s culture. Too many pupils do not feel they are able to share concerns with an adult in school. They fear it will make them seem weak. They are not confident that adults deal with bullying well. They are concerned that reporting it may have no effect or even make the problem worse.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Leaders have not secured a positive culture of mutual respect and appropriate behaviour. A significant minority of pupils regularly disrupt others’ learning, spoil others’ experiences of school and make others feel uncomfortable being themselves. Leaders need to establish an ethos of kindness and respect, where rules are followed and difference is celebrated.  Leaders have not made the school a place where pupils feel safe to pass on concerns or where pupils are confident that concerns will be dealt with effectively. 25–26 February 2020

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This means that too many pupils feel there is not an adult to turn to in the school. Leaders need urgently to ensure that all pupils have an adult in school to talk to if they are worried and that all adults deal well with concerns that are brought to them.  Leaders’ curriculum plans do not set out well when pupils should learn different topics, meaning that some work is disjointed, does not follow well from the previous topic or does not advance pupils’ understanding at an appropriate rate. As a result, pupils do not learn as much as they should. Leaders should ensure that all curriculum plans set clear aims for what pupils should learn and when.  Too many teachers do not use the leaders’ chosen pedagogical strategies effectively. For example, teachers do not use questioning well to make pupils think hard about their learning. This limits pupils’ interest and their depth of understanding. Leaders need to ensure that their strategies to secure high-quality

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teaching are used by all teachers.  Leaders do not train teachers effectively on how to meet the needs of pupils with SEND and they do not check how well teachers use the strategies that pupils need. As a result, pupils do not get sufficient support to achieve well. Leaders should provide teachers with appropriate training and check that teachers make use of the strategies leaders’ identify to help pupils with SEND.

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How can I feed back my views?

or to find out what other parents and carers think. We use Ofsted Parent View information when deciding which schools to inspect, when to inspect them and as part of their inspection.

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How can I feed back my views?

The Department for Education has further guidance on how to complain about a school.

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How can I feed back my views?

If you are the school and you are not happy with the inspection or the report, you can complain to Ofsted .

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Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

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Further information

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. 25–26 February 2020

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School details

Inspection number 10133411 Type of school Secondary comprehensive School category Academy converter

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provision

Number of pupils on the school roll 1468

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sixth form

Date of previous inspection 17 March 2016

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Information about this school

 The school is part of the North Essex Multi-Academy Trust. The trust has some common policies and practices, but delegates much of its work in holding the school to account to a local governing body.  The headteacher of the school is also the chief executive officer (CEO) of the trust.  The school provides specialist education for 20 pupils with speech, language and communication needs. 25–26 February 2020

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Information about this inspection

We carried out this inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Information about this inspection

In accordance with section 44(2) of the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires significant improvement, because it is performing significantly less well than it might in all the circumstances reasonably be expected to perform.

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Information about this inspection

 We did deep dives in the following subjects: English, mathematics, art, religious education, and science. We met with curriculum leaders, visited lessons and reviewed pupils’ work in these subjects and spoke with teachers and pupils.  In addition to the deep dives, we looked at provision in other subjects, visiting lessons, reviewing pupils’ work and speaking with leaders.  We spoke with the headteacher/CEO of the trust, the deputy CEO of the trust, and members of the local governing body and trust. We reviewed minutes of governing body meetings.  We reviewed the school’s information on behaviour and attendance. We reviewed safeguarding records and spoke with staff and pupils about safeguarding arrangements. We held meetings to discuss the leadership of safeguarding.  We considered the 212 responses to Ofsted’s online survey Parent View and the 209 responses to the free-text option; the 111 responses to Ofsted’s staff survey;

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Information about this inspection

and the 115 responses to Ofsted’s pupil survey.  We spoke with staff and pupils about different aspects of provision.

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Inspection team

Andrew Hemmings, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Susan Sutton Ofsted Inspector 25–26 February 2020

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regulates and inspects to 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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