Hall Green School

Inspection of Hall Green School Southam Road, Hall Green, Birmingham, West Midlands B28 0AA

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Inspection dates: 21 and 22 January 2025

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

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The headteacher of this school is Karen Slater. This school is part of the West Midlands Academy 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), Nicola Raggett, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Philip Thickett. 21 and 22 January 2025

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy their learning at Hall Green and feel safe. There is always an adult on hand whom they feel they can talk to and who will listen to them. Pupils live up to the school’s values of ‘learning with compassion, ambition, responsibility and excellence’. Pupils behave well and have positive attitudes to their work.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school sets high expectations for pupils to do well. Outcomes are improving, especially for boys. As part of the school’s 60 years anniversary, it is collecting profiles to display of former pupils to raise pupils’ aspirations further for their future careers.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils excel in sports, for example the Year 8 boys’ football team progressed to the final of a local football tournament. All pupils have the chance to be included in the wide array of academic and sporting clubs, including wheelchair basketball.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils thrive on the leadership roles the school offers, for example as year group ambassadors or as part of the senior pupil leadership team. The school is highly responsive and considerate of pupils’ well-being. For example, it received national recognition on television for its work supporting pupils to take part in physical education during Ramadhan.

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

The school has put in place an ambitious and diverse curriculum. For example, pupils can study three Shakespeare texts rather than the required two. It offers French and Spanish from Year 7. Art and business are particularly popular with pupils. Consequently, there is a strong take-up at GCSE in these subjects. The school’s plans are designed successfully to challenge pupils in the wide range of subjects on offer. They are delivered in a way that allows pupils to accumulate further knowledge over time. The curriculum also takes full account of the changing demographics of the school. It is tailored to reflect the diverse backgrounds and faiths of pupils.

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

Pupils receive effective additional support in reading to catch up and become fluent and confident readers. The school carefully identifies pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The curriculum is skilfully adapted and sequenced for pupils with SEND to enable them to achieve the lesson objectives set for the whole class. Effective systems are also in place to identify and provide support for pupils who speak English as an additional language.

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

Teachers understand the needs of pupils who are disadvantaged. These pupils are supported through a range of strategies, including targeted and skilled questioning, to help them develop their knowledge of the curriculum. Teachers quickly pick up and address any mistakes, gaps or misconceptions pupils have in their learning. This helps pupils to achieve well.

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

Teachers check how well pupils are doing either in lessons or summary checks at the end of units. However, where this is not practised consistently, pupils do not build learning on 21 and 22 January 2025

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There is generally a calm and orderly environment around the school and in lessons. Pupils are respectful and friendly. Attendance has improved over time, and persistent absence is falling. However, some pupils arrive late in the morning, and there is a lack of urgency in moving to lessons on time. This means these pupils miss some essential learning.

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The school has planned its personal development programme well to give pupils a wide and rich experience beyond lessons. There are numerous clubs and activities across the school. These include the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme, journalism and debate club, chess and kickboxing. These add to and extend pupils’ interests and talents.

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The school’s personal, social, health and economic programme makes a positive contribution to pupils’ wider development. For example, pupils understand the importance of making informed lifestyle choices. However, on occasion, there is variability in the delivery of this content by staff. Additionally, some staff do not consistently follow the school’s policy and procedures for managing pupils’ behaviour in these sessions and when pupils are moving around the school.

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The school takes full account of staff workload and welfare. Trustees are also mindful of these aspects. They have streamlined the roles and responsibilities of leaders and shared training and staff knowledge across their three schools to maximise resources. Trustees know the school well and offer a range of expertise to support and challenge leaders.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The assessment of learning is not consistent across the school, especially in key stage 3. This means that some errors and gaps in learning are missed by teachers. The school should ensure that the quality of assessment is consistently high across the school.  In some instances, the delivery of content to support pupils’ personal development and the management of behaviour is not in line with the school’s policies and procedures. This leads to lost learning for some pupils. The school should ensure that all staff consistently apply the policies and procedures.  A number of pupils arrive late to school and to the start of lessons. This means they miss essential learning. The school should work with pupils who arrive late to instil the importance of punctuality so they consistently arrive on time at school and for lessons. 21 and 22 January 2025

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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). 21 and 22 January 2025

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 9 and 10 October 2019, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

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Information about this school

 The school became a trust on 1 January 2025. A board of trustees was established and the previous governing body became a school board with the same chair as before.  The headteacher was appointed after the previous inspection.  The school currently makes use of three registered alternative provisions.  The school currently has a specially resourced provision for pupils with (SEND), specifically physical disabilities.

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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 provision). Schools receiving a graded inspection from September 2024 will not be given an overall effectiveness grade. 21 and 22 January 2025

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 Inspections are a point-in-time evaluation 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.  Inspectors held meetings with the headteacher, the deputy headteachers, other leaders and staff.  Inspectors spoke to groups of pupils to learn their views of the school.  The lead inspector met with members of the trust, including the chair and the CEO, and members of the school board, including the chair.  Inspectors considered responses to the online survey, Ofsted Parent View. This included free-text comments. Inspectors reviewed responses to Ofsted’s online surveys for staff and pupils.  Inspectors considered information on pupils’ behaviour, attendance and personal development.

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 Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: English, mathematics, science, art modern foreign languages and religious education. For each deep dive, they held discussions about the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, 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 safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.

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Inspection team

Mark Sims, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Tim Bassett Ofsted Inspector 21 and 22 January 2025

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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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