Heworth Grange School

Inspection of Heworth Grange School High Lanes, Felling, Gateshead NE10 0PT

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Inspection dates: 12 and 13 November 2024

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

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The headteacher of this school is Neil Rodgers. This school is part of the Consilium Academies trust, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school. The trust is run by the chief executive officer (CEO), Michael McCarthy, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Martin Fleetwood. There is also a trust leader, Allie Denholm, who is responsible for this school and four others. 12 and 13 November 2024

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils at the school are polite, friendly and respectful. The school cares for its pupils. It provides them with effective pastoral support. It also works with parents and carers to remove barriers to pupils’ success. This is a welcoming school in which pupils are safe and feel valued.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school has high expectations for what pupils can achieve, both at school and in their future lives and careers. Some pupils realise these high expectations. However, pupils in key stage 4 have not experienced a consistently effective curriculum. Some pupils have high levels of absence. This means that some pupils have fundamental gaps in their knowledge. This limits what they can achieve.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Most pupils behave well. They work hard in lessons and conduct themselves in a calm and sensible manner. However, the behaviour of some pupils can be disruptive. The school deals with poor behaviour well. This minimises its impact on the learning of other pupils.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school prioritises pupils’ personal development. Pupils enjoy a wide range of clubs and activities. They benefit from educational visits. They discuss and debate important issues that affect their lives. Indeed, the school prepares pupils well for life in modern Britain.

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

The school is working in a context that provides significant challenge. It is experiencing the ongoing impact of the pandemic. This impact is most evident in regard to attendance and pupils’ social, emotional and mental health needs.

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

The school has developed a broad and ambitious curriculum. The curriculum is designed to build pupils' knowledge and skills in a logical manner. However, key stage 4 pupils have only benefitted from this curriculum in the last few years. Some pupils did not secure essential subject knowledge during key stage 3. The school is adapting the curriculum to meet these pupils’ needs.

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

All pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), access the same curriculum. The school identifies and meets the needs of pupils with SEND well. Pupils at an early stage of reading get the extra help that they need. This helps them to catch up with their peers and become confident and fluent readers.

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

Teachers revisit what pupils have learned before and build on that learning. They check pupils’ understanding and give pupils the help they need to improve the quality of their work. However, sometimes teachers do not adapt their teaching well enough. Some pu- pils need more time to secure their knowledge before moving onto the next stage of learning.

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

The school has recently strengthened its work to improve pupils’ attendance. It analyses attendance data carefully to inform a rigorous improvement strategy. This strategy 12 and 13 November 2024

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includes work with pupils and their families to remove barriers to regular attendance. However, despite this work, levels of absence and persistent absence remain high.

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The school has established high expectations of pupils’ behaviour. It is developing a culture in which there are positive relationships between pupils. The school does not tolerate disruption to lessons. When such disruption occurs, staff deal with it effectively. The behaviour of most pupils meets the school’s high expectations. However, there is a significant minority of pupils whose behaviour is persistently disruptive.

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The school has established a comprehensive personal development programme. Pupils learn about healthy relationships, and equality and diversity. They learn how to keep themselves safe, including online. Pupils benefit from high-quality careers education and guidance including a wide range of visits from education and training providers.

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The trust provides effective support for the school. It provides the school with additional leadership capacity and continuing professional development. This is helping the school to improve its education provision. Trustees carry out their responsibilities with appropriate rigour. They hold the school to account and provide clear strategic direction. Staff enjoy working at the school. The school prioritises staff workload and well-being. It values its staff highly.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Sometimes, teachers do not adapt their teaching with sufficient expertise. This results in some pupils not securing foundational subject knowledge and other pupils not getting the opportunity to deepen and extend their learning. The school should ensure that it provides teachers with the professional development they need, both in pedagogy and pedagogical content knowledge, to secure, deepen and extend pupils’ learning.  Levels of absence and persistent absence are high, particularly for disadvantaged pupils. This means that a significant number of pupils are missing too much of their education. It also means that by the end of key stage 4, these pupils do not have the knowledge and understanding they need to achieve well in their examinations. The school should ensure that it sustains its rigorous approach to improving pupils’ attendance.  The behaviour of a significant minority of pupils is persistently disruptive. This means

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

that these pupils miss too much of their education through being suspended from school. This affects their ability to achieve well. Also, the behaviour of these pupils sometimes disrupts the learning of other pupils. The school should ensure that it improves the consistency with which teachers manage pupils’ behaviour. It should also 12 and 13 November 2024

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ensure that it provides pupils with the support that they need to improve their behaviour.

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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). 12 and 13 November 2024

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School details

Number of pupils on the school roll 1,001

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School details

Website heworthgrangeenquiries@consilium-at.com

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School details

Date of previous inspection 26 and 27 April 2022

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Information about this school

 The headteacher has been in post since 1 September 2024.  The school is part of the Consilium Academies trust.  The school uses four registered alternative provisions and two unregistered alternative provisions.  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

The inspectors carried out this graded inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. During a graded inspection, we grade the school for each of our key judgements (quality of education; behaviour and attitudes; personal development; and leadership and management) and for any relevant provision judgement (early years and/or sixth form 12 and 13 November 2024

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provision). Schools receiving a graded inspection from September 2024, will not be given an overall effectiveness grade.

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 Inspections are a point-in-time evaluation about the quality of a school’s education provision.  Inspectors discussed any continued impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  The inspectors met with the headteacher, deputy headteachers, the trust’s northeast hub director and the chief executive officer of the trust. They also met with the chair and vice chair of the board of trustees.  The inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: English, mathematics, science, art and design, and music. For each deep dive, the 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.  The inspectors also considered the curriculum in some other subjects.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors: reviewed the single

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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 safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.  The inspectors considered the responses to Ofsted’s surveys for pupils and staff, and to the online survey for parents, Ofsted Parent View.

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Inspection team

Ian Rawstorne, lead inspector His Majesty's Inspector

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Inspection team

Michael Laidler Ofsted Inspector 12 and 13 November 2024

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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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