New River College Secondary

Inspection of a good school: New River College Secondary Lough Road, London N7 8RH

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Outcome

New River College Secondary continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders are ambitious to prepare pupils for their next stages in education and employment. The school encourages pupils’ personal development and academic achievement equally well and supports their readiness for life beyond school. The school ensures that pupils are equipped with qualifications, skills and experiences relevant to their career aspirations.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school helps each pupil to develop positive attitudes to school. Leaders determine carefully the combination of subjects that each pupil studies and tailor adaptations to teaching to meet pupils’ needs and preferences.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff know pupils well, help them to settle in lessons and to focus on their learning. Pupils interact positively with staff and each other. Staff are quick to respond to and resolve any incidents of unsettled behaviour. Pupils are safe in school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school works together with a range of external organisations and encourages pupils to recognise risks to their well-being and to keep themselves safe. The school organises excursions for pupils, for example to take part in adventurous outdoor activities, which boost pupils’ confidence and self-esteem.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Leaders are ambitious for all pupils. They ensure that the school offers a well-thought- through personalised curriculum for each pupil. Leaders have thought about the curriculum content they expect pupils to learn. Subject leaders work closely with teachers of pupils who are educated off site and provide resources and guidance to ensure that all pupils have access to the intended curriculum.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Staff check regularly how well pupils are learning. Staff get to know each pupil’s strengths and any gaps in their knowledge, from when they start at the school. Teachers routinely adapt their teaching and their choice of resources to enable pupils, including pupils with 24 and 25 April 2024

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special educational needs and/or disabilities, to overcome barriers to their learning. Teachers help pupils to remember their learning and to recognise the relevance of their studies to real-life situations.

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Pupils practise their reading skills in all curriculum subjects, for example, through reading subject-specific texts. The school has appropriate resources and expertise to provide additional support with early reading to any pupils who need extra help to build reading confidence and fluency.

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Leaders organise training to ensure that staff know and use effective strategies to meet pupil’s individual needs. Staff ensure that there is a consistent, whole-school approach to supporting pupils to manage their emotions and behaviour. Pupils listen attentively in lessons, discussing and sharing ideas with others.

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Staff are well supported by leaders. They appreciate the sense of teamwork and leaders’ readiness to listen if they have any concerns. A range of initiatives, including those organised through the school’s staff well-being network, support staff well-being and help to manage their workload.

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Pupils start at the school typically with previously low rates of attendance. Leaders are vigilant in following up absence from school, checking swiftly pupils’ safety and well- being. Staff work closely with pupils and their families to help pupils improve their attendance rates, working with outside agencies, where needed. Although improving over time, valuable learning is missed due to pupils’ absence from school.

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The school encourages pupils’ wider personal and social development. Pupils are taught a range of themes such as finance, relationships, health and well-being that help to prepare them for their future adult lives. Staff carefully check aspects of the content covered by every pupil to ensure that they catch up on any gaps in coverage of key areas. Visiting speakers enrich the programme, running age-appropriate sessions, for example, on sexual health, drugs and alcohol, knife crime and cyberbullying.

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The school places high priority on promoting career opportunities with a particular focus on possibilities for next steps post-16. Staff skilfully guide individual pupils with planning what training, education or employment that they will move on to, enabling them to identify their goals and what they need to do to achieve them. Visits to colleges of further education, activities such as careers month, and routine highlighting of the relevance of subjects to different careers all help to support pupils’ decision-making. Pupils gain valuable insight into the world of work through work-experience placements and completion of vocational courses, including construction and engineering.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. 24 and 25 April 2024

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Valuable learning is missed when pupils do not attend school regularly. Progression in pupils’ personalised curriculums is interrupted when pupils miss learning and the wider opportunities that the school offers. Leaders should continue their work to ensure that pupils’ attend school regularly.

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Background

When we have judged a school to be good we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good. This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act. Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

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Background

This is the first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in November 2018.

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How can I feed back my views?

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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Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

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Further information

In the report, ‘disadvantaged pupils’ is used to mean pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND); pupils who meet the definition of children in need of help and protection; pupils receiving statutory local authority support from a social worker; and pupils who otherwise meet the criteria used for deciding the school’s pupil premium funding (this includes pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years, looked after children (children in local authority care) and/or children who left care through adoption or another formal route). 24 and 25 April 2024

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Headteacher Nigel Smith (executive headteacher)

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School details

Website www.newrivercollege.co.uk/nrc- secondary/welcome-secondary Dates of previous inspection 7 to 9 November 2018, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 Since the previous inspection, there have been several changes to the leadership team of the school.  The school makes use of four registered alternative providers and three unregistered alternative providers. The school also provides one-to-one tuition for some pupils off site to support their transition to full-time education or employment.  The school meets the requirements of the provider access legislation, which requires schools to provide pupils in Years 8 to 13 with information and engagement about approved technical education qualifications and apprenticeships.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspections are a point-in-time judgement about the quality of a school’s education provision.  This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school. 24 and 25 April 2024

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 The inspectors met with school leaders, including the executive headteacher and representatives of the governing body including the chair. An inspector also met with representatives of external services that work with the school.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: mathematics, science and personal, social and health education. For each deep dive, inspectors held discussions about the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. Inspectors also looked at the personalised curriculum studies by each pupil, including the vocational programme.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors: reviewed the single central record; took account of the views of leaders, staff and pupils; and considered the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around

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safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.  Inspectors considered the views of pupils, parents and staff in responses to online surveys.  An inspector visited pupils attending off-site educational activities and receiving one-to- one tuition.

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Inspection team

Amanda Fraser, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

David Lloyd Ofsted Inspector 24 and 25 April 2024

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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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