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Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 1231 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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James Horspool Interim Executive Headteacher Mayfield School Wheeler Street Birmingham West Midlands B19 2EP

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Ofsted visit to Mayfield School

Following my visit with Jo Evans, Her Majesty’s Inspector (HMI), to your school on 8 October 2020, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to confirm the visit’s findings. Thank you for the time you made available to discuss your actions since September 2020, when the government expected all schools to open fully to all pupils.

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Ofsted visit to Mayfield School

This visit was conducted under section 8 of the Education Act 2005 (as amended) and in accordance with Ofsted’s published procedures for visiting schools while routine inspections are temporarily suspended.

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Ofsted visit to Mayfield School

Ofsted’s visits to schools during the autumn term are not inspections. We are not giving graded judgements. We did not undertake the usual range of inspection activities and were unable to check other sources of evidence, such as visits to lessons or looking at pupils’ work. The content of this letter gives an overview of our discussions about what has happened in your school this term.

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Ofsted visit to Mayfield School

During the visit, we spoke to you, the senior leadership team, the senior leader responsible for safeguarding and members of the pastoral support team. We did not speak to pupils because of the protective measures in place.

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Context

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills is leading Ofsted’s work into how England’s education system is managing the return to full education for pupils, following an extended break in formal schooling due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.

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Context

In undertaking this focused work, HMI are visiting a broad range of schools. HMI will visit a sample of:

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Context

 approximately 1,200 schools across all Ofsted grades (outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate)  maintained schools, academies and free schools, special schools and centres of alternative provision, including those in cities, and coastal, town or rural communities.

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Context

The information from this visit will feed into Ofsted’s national reporting so that the insights can be shared with the government and the education sector. We did not find any significant concerns during the visit. In such a case, an inspection report would be published on our website and available to parents and carers.

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Context

We did not consider your response to COVID-19 during the spring and summer terms 2020, when the school was not open to all pupils.

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

 You opened the school fully to all pupils on 7 September 2020. All pupils are expected to attend full time, except for a small number who have been granted medical exemptions.  Pupils’ attendance is lower than it was at this time last year. At the time of the visit, 13 class groups from the Wheeler Street site were self-isolating. These pupils are from a range of year groups. You know that some parents are anxious about sending their children back to school because of their health conditions, or because they feel there may be a risk to other family members. You continue to maintain regular contact with families whose children are not attending, and signpost them to other services where appropriate.  You launched your new ‘Get Real’ curriculum, as planned, in September 2020, and say that you are on track to implement it fully by the summer term 2021. You have made some changes to your curriculum delivery because of COVID-

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

19. For example, pupils no longer share resources across class groups. You have adapted some physical education lessons in order to reduce physical contact. You told us that new lunchtime arrangements have reduced pupils’ social contact.  Staff are in the process of completing baseline assessments of all pupils. You have noticed that the time pupils spent at home, in the period when schools were only open to some pupils due to COVID-19 restrictions, has had a negative impact on their physical development. Pupils were not always able to access the equipment or services they needed. You told us that some pupils have struggled to get back into the school routine, and you are providing extra help for these pupils or referring them to other agencies.  You know that some pupils were not always able to use the resources they needed at home to help them communicate. Speech and language therapists have now returned to support your work with these pupils. You said that you

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

are putting more emphasis on early and pre-reading skills to help pupils catch up.  Older pupils are focusing on accredited courses. You have had to make adaptations to some of these because of local restrictions. You are amending the way pupils can access work experience. Currently, work experience is mostly school based.  You have adopted a blended approach to remote learning, which includes paper-based activities, videos, practical tasks and online learning. You told us that this is matched to your school curriculum to make learning as seamless as possible. You are confident that this will continue and develop should there be any future local restrictions.

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

Thank you again for contributing to this important national work. The views and experiences you have shared will help to inform future policy.

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

I am copying this letter to the chair of the interim executive board, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Birmingham. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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