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

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Anna Rooney Principal De Warenne Academy Gardens Lane Conisbrough Doncaster South Yorkshire DN12 3JY

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Ofsted visit to De Warenne Academy

Following my visit with Chris Cook, Her Majesty’s Inspector (HMI), to your school on 22 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 De Warenne Academy

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 De Warenne Academy

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 De Warenne Academy

During the visit, we spoke to you and other members of your senior leadership team, including those staff responsible for safeguarding. 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:

 The school opened fully to all pupils on 4 September 2020. All pupils are expected to attend on a full-time basis.  Attendance is below the school’s normal attendance for this time of year. You have updated your existing attendance policy and are working with parents and carers to promote better attendance.  In Years 7 to 9, pupils are studying their usual range of subjects. In Years 7 and 8, you have formally assessed pupils in English and mathematics. You informed us that this was done to assess what pupils can remember from the period before the school was not open to all pupils during the spring and summer terms 2020.  In Years 10 and 11, pupils are studying all of their usual subjects. You have extended the school day for pupils in Year 11, providing additional teaching time to teach topics that pupils have missed or not fully understood during the period when school was partially shut.  You are currently providing remote education for children who are isolating,

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

using a range of technologies and resources to deliver this. You believe that you have capacity to provide this more widely if, in the future, entire ‘bubbles’ need to access their learning remotely due to further restrictions. You explained that in all cases you are providing work that matches the content pupils would be covering if they were in school. 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 academy advisory board, the chair of the board of trustees, the chief executive officer of the Delta Trust, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Doncaster. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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