Imedia School

Inspection of Imedia School Faraday Court, Birmingham, 85 Summer Road, Erdington B23 6UT

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Requires improvement Leadership and management Requires improvement Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

Does the school meet the independent school standards?

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils believe that they will do better at this school than at their home school. However, the delivery of the curriculum in some subjects, for example mathematics, does not enable them to deepen their understanding securely enough.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The curriculum is designed so that pupils can give full concentration to the subjects they study for examinations. Consequently, they only have a few educational visits. Opportunities to extend their personal development through wider experiences are therefore limited.

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What is it like to attend this school?

All staff understand the pupils’ social and emotional needs very well. Pupils come to Imedia School because their behaviour has not been good enough in their home schools. However, pupils soon learn to behave well. They know that the adults at the school care about them and want them to do well.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy in this school and get on well with each other. They say that there is no bullying because it is a small school where ‘everyone gets along’. Staff are successful in the way they manage behaviour. They encourage good behaviour by discussing it with pupils. A well-developed behaviour points system with rewards encourages them. Leaders are successful in motivating pupils to take responsibility for their own behaviour and to self-regulate.

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better?

Leaders have worked on developing a curriculum that will be manageable for pupils. Most Year 11 pupils arrive in this alternative provision with, at most, only one year in which to improve their chances of success in GSCE examinations. Early assessments, conducted on entry to the school, identify pupils’ needs. Teachers plan learning to address these needs, including for the least able. There are opportunities for creativity in English, drama and in citizenship lessons. However, opportunities for creative and aesthetic development are not as strong in other curriculum areas.

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better?

There are well sequenced schemes of work in all subjects that pupils study. These are designed to ensure that the school meets the needs of all pupils, including those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). However, there are currently no pupils with SEND in the school so impact cannot be assessed for this group.

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better?

Pupils are helped to know and remember more by revisiting previous learning. They are regularly given helpful memory strategies like mnemonics. Frequent small tests and quizzes are also provided to check on learning. In some subjects, such as English, there is plenty of discussion that helps pupils to deepen their understanding and develop their skills. There are also creative drama opportunities where pupils develop their understanding of characters in stories. However, curriculum planning and delivery in other subjects, for example mathematics is weaker. Here, it does not 3–5 March 2020

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enable pupils to acquire new knowledge and deepen their learning, for example by developing their reasoning skills.

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Pupils’ behaviour at their home schools has been a barrier to their learning. Staff manage behaviour well at Imedia. There is a calm working environment. Pupils treat staff and their peers with respect. Most pupils have improved their behaviour and their attendance since coming to this school. Parents commented on how their children had ‘come on leaps and bounds’. They spoke about how their children’s behaviour had improved both at home and at school. Most pupils attend regularly and are punctual. However, there remains a minority of pupils who still arrive late to school. Sometimes pupils arrive in the middle or at the end of a lesson and this means that they miss important opportunities to learn.

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Work in citizenship lessons supports pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. It supports, in particular, their understanding of British Values. For example, pupils learn about human rights when they study trade unions and the role they play in society. Pupils say that they discuss equalities regularly and that there is respect for people whose faith, ethnicity or lifestyle are different from their own.

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Pupils have visited a church and are soon to visit a mosque. However, there are very few visits or visitors to the school to enrich the curriculum. This contributes weakly to pupils’ personal development.

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Teachers ensure that pupils learn how they can contribute positively to society. Much of the careers education takes place in citizenship lessons. Staff also help pupils and their families to find out about different career options and show them how to apply for courses and apprenticeships. Pupils have opportunities for work experience, for example in a garage or an accountancy firm.

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Leaders take account of the views of pupils, for example with lunchtime food preferences. Pupils learn about healthy lifestyles in science lessons. They know about the importance of exercise as well as eating a balanced diet. Leaders encourage pupils to develop their learning in different ways. They encourage them to watch news programmes and to read widely. Also, pupils are encouraged to use software programmes that are designed to assess their needs and address gaps in their learning. Pupils do these things independently either in school or for homework.

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Leaders work well with parents. They contact them frequently by telephone. The headteacher informs parents of any concerns. He is happy to talk to them at any time during the day or in the evening. Staff told us that they do not feel overloaded by work and that leaders care about their well-being.

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Governors have appropriate experience in education, school referrals and buildings maintenance to be able to support the school. Following the previous Ofsted inspection, the proprietor and governors ensured that monitoring of teaching, and training in the delivery of mathematics, was regular. However, these staff have now left the school. This has had a negative effect on the quality of education, 3–5 March 2020

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particularly in mathematics. For this reason, leaders have not been able to ensure that all the independent school standards are met. They have ensured that the school meets the requirements of The Equality Act 2010.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

All staff care strongly about the safety of pupils. They work closely with the agencies that refer pupils to the school. Between them, they have effective systems in place to ensure that when pupils are not in school, they know exactly where they are. Pupils are taught how to keep themselves safe, both on the internet, and in their everyday lives. The headteacher, the deputy headteacher and the chair of governors are trained in safer recruitment. All staff have been safely recruited.

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Safeguarding

The school’s safeguarding policy is displayed on the website and meets the requirements of the Secretary of State.

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What does the school need to do to improve?

 Although there are opportunities within the curriculum for pupils to be creative, they have not been developed fully enough. Therefore, this aspect of pupils’ learning is limited. Leaders should ensure that there is a broader range of creative opportunities available for pupils.  Some staff do not have the skills and subject knowledge they need to deliver the curriculum well in the subject that they teach, such as mathematics. This results in pupils not learning as well as they should. Leaders must ensure that teachers receive the training they need to deliver their areas of the curriculum effectively.  A minority of pupils are too often late. This means that they arrive when the first lesson has started and sometimes well into the lesson. They therefore miss essential lesson content. Leaders must ensure that pupils do not miss important lesson content through frequent lateness.  Leaders do not provide enough curriculum enrichment opportunities through visits

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What does the school need to do to improve?

and visitors to the school. This means that pupils’ personal development and pupils’ wider learning are limited. Leaders must ensure that they further enrich the curriculum.

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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. 3–5 March 2020

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

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If you are the provider and you are not happy with the inspection or the report, you can complain to Ofsted . 3–5 March 2020

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School details

Unique reference number 143040 DfE registration number 330/6030

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School details

Inspection number 10119226 Type of school Other independent school

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School details

Number of pupils on the school roll 8 (dual registered)

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School details

Telephone number 0121 448 1727/07951 346623

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School details

Email address hussein@imediaschool.co.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 24–26 April 2018

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Information about this school

 Imedia School provides education for pupils between the ages of 14 and 16. It operates from a single site in Erdington, Birmingham. The school does not use any other premises.  Pupils are directed to the school by the local authority and local secondary schools. There are currently eight pupils attending the school for alternative provision. They are dual registered so that they remain on roll at their home school.  Pupils attending Imedia School typically have a range of social, emotional and mental health difficulties. Many are at risk of exclusion from their home school or 3–5 March 2020

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have been excluded from school previously. No pupils have a statement of need or an education, health and care plan.  The school does not have a specific religious character or denomination.  The school aims to address the individual social, emotional and learning needs of young people by developing their self-esteem and teaching them to make appropriate choices to enable them to reintegrate into school or continue on into further education or employment.  Since the previous inspection, there have been a number of staff changes, with some staff leaving the school. A new deputy headteacher started at the school on the second day of the inspection.  The school delivers functional skills and GCSE courses.  The school does not use any alternative providers.  The school uses Erdington Leisure Centre for physical education lessons.  This is the school’s second standard inspection. The first standard inspection took

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Information about this inspection

We carried out this inspection under section 109(1) and (2) of the Education and Skills Act 2008. The purpose of the inspection 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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Information about this inspection

The school has failed to meet the independent school standards. These are the requirements of the schedule to the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014.

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Information about this inspection

 We held meetings with the chair of governors and one other governor, the headteacher, the deputy headteacher and one other teacher.  As part of the inspection, we focused on English, mathematics, citizenship and business education. We met with pupils, curriculum leaders and teachers to talk about the quality of education in these subjects.  We visited lessons and scrutinised pupils’ work in these subjects. We also visited a science lesson.  We spoke to pupils informally at breaktimes about their well-being and about what it is like to be a pupil in the school.  We toured the premises with the headteacher to ensure that the school building and premises are appropriate and are maintained to an acceptable standard.  We examined a range of policies and curriculum plans as well as documentation related to health and safety and safeguarding. 3–5 March 2020

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 We held a meeting with the designated safeguarding leader to discuss safeguarding procedures and safeguarding documentation. We also spoke to other staff about their knowledge of safeguarding procedures.  We spoke on the telephone to a number of parents. We also spoke to professionals from other settings who have referred pupils to the school.  There were no responses to Ofsted’s Parent View.

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Inspection team

Mary Maybank, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Julie Griffiths Ofsted Inspector 3–5 March 2020

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Part 1. Quality of education provided

 3 The standard in this paragraph is met if the proprietor ensures that the teaching at the school–

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Part 1. Quality of education provided

– 3(a) 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;

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Part 1. Quality of education provided

– 3(c) involves well-planned lessons and effective teaching methods, activities and management of class time.

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Part 8. Quality of leadership in and management of schools

 34(1) The standard about the quality of leadership and management is met if the proprietor ensures that persons with leadership and management responsibilities at the school–

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Part 8. Quality of leadership in and management of schools

– 34(1)(a) demonstrate good skills and knowledge appropriate to their role so that the independent school standards are met consistently;

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Part 8. Quality of leadership in and management of schools

– 34(1)(b) fulfil their responsibilities effectively so that the independent school standards are met consistently. 3–5 March 2020

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