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

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Jy Taylor Headteacher Twynham School Sopers Lane Christchurch Dorset BH23 1JF

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Ofsted remote visit to Twynham School

Following my remote visit with Heather Barraclough, Her Majesty’s Inspector (HMI), to your school on 17 November 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 remote visit to Twynham 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. Following changes to government guidance and the imposition of COVID-19 (coronavirus) lockdown restrictions, we made this visit remotely to reduce pressure on the school.

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Ofsted remote visit to Twynham 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 remote visit to Twynham School

During the visit, we spoke to you, the senior leadership team, the multi-academy trust director for standards, and curriculum leaders for English, mathematics, geography and modern foreign languages. We did not speak to pupils.

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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 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:

 There were two ‘bubbles’ isolating at the time of the visit. These were in Years 12 and 13. Approximately 1 in 20 pupils have had to work from home since the start of term.  All pupils are studying their usual range of subjects.  You have checked pupils’ new starting points. Leaders recognise that pupils’ extended writing skills, in all year groups, are weaker than before.  In Year 8, pupils are revisiting arithmetic skills. In Year 9, pupils are revising geometry formulas, such as for calculating the area of a circle. In English, there is a focus on reading and vocabulary work for pupils in Year 9.  In modern foreign languages, there is a focus on Year 11 pupils’ listening skills. In Year 11, a number of identified pupils, in English and mathematics, have extra learning time at the start of the day. In geography, Year 10 pupils are revising note taking skills.  In Year 13, geography field work took place in September as it could not take

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

place in the summer term.  Remote learning is a multimedia-based approach in every subject. You say that it is aligned to the school’s current curriculum. Pupils view live lessons and recorded lessons from professional websites, as well as PowerPoint presentations with teacher commentary.

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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 board of trustees, the chief executive officer of the Twynham Learning multi-academy trust, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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