Setting

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

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Anita Notta Principal The Khalsa Academy Wolverhampton Millfields Road Wolverhampton West Midlands WV4 6AP

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Ofsted remote visit to The Khalsa Academy Wolverhampton

Following my remote visit with Sue Morris-King, Her Majesty's Inspector (HMI), to your school on 12 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 The Khalsa Academy Wolverhampton

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 The Khalsa Academy Wolverhampton

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 The Khalsa Academy Wolverhampton

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

 Since returning to school in September, just below half of pupils have had to work from home at some point.  Pupils in all years are studying their usual range of subjects. Leaders have made some adaptions to the curriculum within subjects. For example, in science, leaders have planned for teachers to teach some content at a quicker pace than normal. Leaders have made these changes so that pupils can study the content they missed during the period when schools were only open to some pupils due to COVID-19 restrictions.  You have formally assessed Year 7 pupils in English and mathematics. Leaders have used information from these assessments to identify pupils’ starting points. In all other year groups, teachers are making checks in lessons as part of their normal teaching. Teachers are using these checks to identify gaps in pupils’ knowledge. You told us that some pupils are receiving extra support to

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

help them catch up, outside of the normal school day.  You have developed a system for pupils to continue learning at home. Your system includes the use of a daily timetable so that pupils know what to do and when. As part of your approach, pupils that are isolating as part of a year- group ‘bubble’ are expected to access live lessons online. If individual pupils are isolating, they have access to resources from the lessons they are missing. You provide packs of work for pupils who find it difficult to access work online. You told us that the content of online lessons closely matches what pupils would study if they were in school.

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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 Khalsa Academies Trust, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Wolverhampton. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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