The Altus School

Inspection of Gloucester and Forest Alternative Provision School Russet House, 35 Russet Close, Tuffley, Gloucester, Gloucestershire GL4 0RQ

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Inspection dates: 19 and 20 January 2022

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Overall effectiveness Good

The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Good Previous inspection grade Requires improvement 19 and 20 January 2022

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What is it like to attend this school?

Gloucester and Forest Alternative Provision is a school where pupils’ needs are identified quickly, understood and valued. Staff share high aspirations for all. Everyone seeks to secure pupils’ positive learning experiences. Pupils study personalised programmes. They re-engage in their learning because they know staff care about how well they do.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils benefit from positive relationships with staff. Staff promote care, tolerance and respect. Discriminatory or unkind behaviour are not tolerated. Pupils feel that bullying is very rare. They say that when it happens, ‘staff are on it’. Consequently, pupils feel safe and experience success. Pupils go on to attend better, achieve well and believe in themselves.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils can present with complex and difficult behaviour. Nevertheless, leaders and staff have created a calm and orderly environment. There are clear expectations and routines. When pupils do present with challenging behaviours, staff know how to respond. This helps pupils to manage their own feelings and refocus on learning. Pupils improve their behaviour rapidly over time. As a result, pupils develop positive attitudes to their learning, maintain better relationships and recognise their own self- worth.

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better?

Leaders have secured an ambitious curriculum that meets the specific needs of pupils well. Pupils arrive following fragmented periods in their education. Staff assess pupils’ needs straight away. The strong curriculum focuses on addressing gaps in pupils’ learning. Skilled staff utilise strong relationships to help deliver the curriculum effectively. Useful strategies, including the unrelenting focus on improving vocabulary, enhance pupils’ learning.

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better?

Leaders are very effective. They have ensured everyone is focused on pupils’ learning. Leaders utilise useful external support and robust challenge from the management committee to enhance their plans for improvement. This ensures leaders’ actions address identified weaknesses rapidly. Staff share leaders’ ambition. Many believe leaders consider their well-being and support them to do better. Consequently, the school continues to improve.

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better?

Skilled teaching ensures the intended curriculum is implemented well. Assessment information is used effectively. Teachers ensure they adapt lessons to meet individual need well. Academic targets, aligned to pupils’ personal plans, are used consistently to promote learning.

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better?

Pupils’ reading is prioritised. The reading curriculum is carefully planned, adaptive and implemented by well-trained staff. Staff use timely assessments to offer tailored packages of learning. Early readers learn their phonics in a systematic way. 19 and 20 January 2022

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However, despite leaders improving the books available to support early readers, the match between the books and the sounds pupils know is not always consistent.

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Leaders have high expectations of what they expect pupils to learn. Curriculum leaders have focused on key concepts from all areas of the national curriculum. Key components of knowledge are identified. Curriculum leaders ensure these components are taught to pupils in an ordered and well-sequenced way. Pupils learn to succeed. Pupils’ attitudes to learning improve quickly. Many reintegrate into mainstream education. Older pupils go on to attain qualifications in key areas of the curriculum.

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Pupils are well prepared for their next stages, including returning to mainstream education, qualifications and other destinations. However, some pupils have varied access to this well-sequenced curriculum. This is because some pupils’ attendance is still low. For others, their learning choices mean they might miss key concepts in some subjects. Consequently, leaders cannot assure themselves that pupils access key elements of the curriculum consistently.

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Staff ensure pupils have a rich experience of their local and wider community. In lessons, pupils discuss beliefs and values through religious studies and personal, social and health education (PSHE) lessons. This helps develop pupils’ moral compass and preparation for adult life in modern Britain. Pupils receive useful and well-considered careers advice. The school meets the expectations of the Baker Clause, which requires schools to provide pupils in Years 8 to 13 with information about approved technical education qualifications and apprenticeships. However, there are times when pupils lack the resilience or tenacity to write in subjects other than English.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

The leadership of safeguarding is strong. Leaders know their local setting and related challenges very well. They have rightly focused on how to support pupils who are vulnerable to the culture of exploitation and drugs. Leaders have implemented secure systems for managing safeguarding and responding to these challenges. Staff follow processes diligently. They report concerns in a timely fashion. Leaders take appropriate action if they are unhappy with responses from other agencies.

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Safeguarding

Leaders ensure they follow relevant guidance when employing staff. Appropriate checks are made when new staff join the school. These are recorded diligently on the single central record. 19 and 20 January 2022

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Leaders have significantly improved the ambition and breadth of the curriculum. Staff give pupils choices about when they learn different elements of the curriculum. However, some pupils’ attendance, although improving, is not as high as it should be. Other pupils’ choices limit their access to parts of the curriculum. Leaders are not able to assure themselves that pupils get the same learning from the developing curriculum. Leaders should strengthen the processes they use to assure themselves that pupils have full access to the curriculum.  The implementation of the curriculum is increasingly effective. Pupils are learning the curriculum with much greater security. However, some pupils lack resilience when asked to write in subjects other than English. Leaders should consider how to build greater resilience among pupils to write across the curriculum.  Leaders have improved the books available to early readers. Many pupils are

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

benefiting by taking home books they can read independently. However, for those in the very earliest stages of reading, books do not match the sounds pupils know as well as they could. Leaders should accelerate their plans to ensure all pupils can take home books that directly link with the sounds they can use to decode independently.

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How can I feed back my views?

or to find out what other parents and carers think. We use information from Ofsted Parent View when deciding which schools to inspect, when to inspect them and as part of their inspection.

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How can I feed back my views?

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

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How can I feed back my views?

If you are the school and you are not happy with the inspection or the report, you can complain to Ofsted .

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Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

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Further information

In the report, ‘disadvantaged pupils’ refers to those pupils who attract government pupil premium funding: pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years and pupils in care or who left care through adoption or another formal route. 19 and 20 January 2022

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School details

Appropriate authority The management committee

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School details

Date of previous inspection 23 June 2021, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 Gloucester and Forest Alternative Provision School caters for pupils who have been permanently excluded or who are at risk of being excluded. The school operates on three sites. Russet House, in Gloucester, provides education for key stage 4 pupils. The Raikes Centre has a secondary department for pupils in key stages 3 and 4. Rutherford House caters for primary-age pupils in key stages 1 and 2.  The school uses seven alternative providers, one of which is registered with Ofsted.  Pupils arrive throughout the year through referral from the local authority, usually as the result of permanent exclusion from a mainstream school.  All pupils have some specific need associated with past schooling or personal circumstances. Most have social, emotional or mental health needs. All pupils have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Most pupils have an education, health and care plan or are about to obtain one.

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Information about this school

 There were no children in the Reception Year at the time of the inspection. 19 and 20 January 2022

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 The school’s outreach team works with pupils in mainstream schools who are either at risk of exclusion or are returning to mainstream provision after a period at the school.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors discussed any continued impact of the pandemic with leaders and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors met with senior and curriculum leaders, including the headteacher, and representatives from the management committee, including the chair and vice- chair. Inspectors discussed leaders’ evaluations, priorities for improvement and systems for monitoring and accountability, as well as the curriculum.  Inspectors did deep dives into the following subjects: early reading, science, history and PSHE. Inspectors met with senior and subject leaders, and with teachers and pupils. They visited lessons, scrutinised pupils’ work and talked to pupils. Inspectors reviewed some subject planning and spoke to leaders about other subjects. The lead inspector listened to some pupils read.  Inspectors scrutinised feedback from 24 responses to the staff survey.  Inspectors analysed school documentation, including leaders’ evaluations and

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Information about this inspection

plans for improvement, external reports and paperwork relating to the work of the management committee. Inspectors scrutinised a range of policies and procedures, including those that relate to the curriculum.  Inspectors reviewed safeguarding arrangements by meeting with the designated safeguarding lead, the school business manager, the headteacher and centre leads and also by reviewing safer recruitment processes, speaking to staff and speaking to pupils. Inspectors analysed safeguarding procedures relating to the use of alternative provision and visited the Gloucester Youth Project to check arrangements were appropriate.  Inspectors scrutinised school policies, governance arrangements, records of concern and links to other agencies.

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Inspection team

Matthew Barnes, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Stewart Gale Her Majesty’s Inspector 19 and 20 January 2022

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regulates and inspects to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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