Setting

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

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Kelly Leighton Acting Headteacher Blackmarston School Honddu Close Hereford Herefordshire HR2 7NX

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Serious weaknesses monitoring inspection of Blackmarston School

This letter sets out the findings from the monitoring inspection that took place on 28 January 2025, on behalf of His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills. The monitoring inspection was carried out under section 8 (2) of the Education Act 2005 and was the first monitoring inspection since the school was judged to have serious weaknesses following the graded (section 5) inspection that took place in June 2023.

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Serious weaknesses monitoring inspection of Blackmarston School

The purpose of a monitoring inspection is not to grade the school’s key and (where applicable) provision judgements, but to identify and report on the school’s progress. It is to highlight to the school and parents any improvements that school leaders have made since the school’s previous graded inspection.

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Serious weaknesses monitoring inspection of Blackmarston School

During the inspection, I discussed with you and other senior leaders, the chair of the interim executive board (IEB), leaders from the Accordia Academies Trust who are currently providing external support, middle leaders, a school improvement partner and a representative from the local authority the actions that have been taken to improve the school since the most recent graded inspection. We discussed the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. I also scrutinised documentation for improvement planning, safeguarding and special educational needs and/or disabilities. I met with staff, visited lessons, spoke to pupils and listened to pupils read to a familiar adult. I have considered all this in coming to my judgement.

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Leaders have made progress to improve the school, but more work is

necessary for the school to no longer be judged as having serious weaknesses.

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designation

Since the previous inspection, there have been several changes within the leadership of the school. The substantive headteacher at the time of the previous inspection is no longer at the school. The deputy headteacher at that time is now the acting headteacher. An acting deputy headteacher and three middle leaders have been appointed. An IEB was agreed by the Department for Education in November 2023. This leadership structure is bringing stability and security to the school.

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designation

Following the previous inspection, a range of people have worked together effectively to get the leadership structure right. The focus of this work was on securing a senior leadership model that could bring about the required stability and improvements. Initially, there was some delay due to ensuring that staffing policies and procedures were followed correctly. However, once the acting headteacher and acting deputy headteacher were formally appointed, forward movement towards improvements began in earnest.

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The local authority has supported these changes with the appointment of members to the IEB. This was key to bringing people on board with the relevant experience and expertise to guide, support and challenge the newly formed senior leadership team. The combination of these experts in education and the knowledge that school leaders have of the school’s context and pupils’ needs are bringing about the required improvements in a manageable way.

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Through this dedicated teamwork approach, you have ensured that there has been immediate action to address the issues identified in the previous inspection for reading and phonics. Along with your acting deputy headteacher, you have thought long and hard about how the earliest pre-reading skills and phonics can be delivered within your school context. You are developing staff expertise in teaching phonics through high-quality support and training. Your methods of team teaching and ‘in the moment’ coaching are appreciated by staff and are making a positive difference to the effectiveness of teaching phonics.

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designation

You have changed the structure of the school day so that pupils can be grouped to access pre-reading and phonics sessions in a way that is right for them. The focus groups provide activities that support the earliest stages of interaction and communication. These are working well. Staff understand what each activity is setting out to achieve. They choose and use appropriate activities to engage pupils. These resources are fully adapted to each pupil’s individual needs in a way that is creative and successful. Through this effective work, pupils are beginning to benefit from a consistent, well-delivered phonics curriculum. For those who are learning to read, or can read, books are pitched at the right level for the sounds that they know. This helps pupils to read simple text and full stories with confidence and expression. Pupils enjoyed sharing their success with this with me. The school’s work on the curriculum is at an earlier stage than that of phonics and

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reading. This is because you have, rightly, prioritised safeguarding, leadership and reading before now turning your attention to the curriculum. To support your next steps of improvement, you have recruited middle leaders to begin to develop the curriculum. You currently have three curriculum areas in place: my communication, my independence and my thinking. You use topics to develop learning over time that tap into pupils’ interests and build on what they can do. Staff use these as starting points to plan units of work. You have strengthened the frequency and relevance of staff training to focus on meeting pupils’ individual needs as well as how to deliver activities well. However, each of these strands is in its infancy. You are clear on what needs to happen next. There is more work to do to continue to develop middle leaders into their roles and define the steps and stages of learning with more clarity and precision. You intend that this will, in turn, help

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all staff know what, when and how to teach a given learning intention that is aligned with pupils’ end goals and helps them to be ready for what comes next.

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Staff appreciate the training and support that they receive. There has been some movement of staff leaving and new staff starting. You have clear processes in place to support staff to quickly get to grips with the vision and ethos of the school. You then build on this with a range of training that helps everyone to know and understand the range and complexity of the needs of the pupils. This is beginning to help staff to plan more effectively in terms of the activities that are put in place and the resources that will support the learning. Your two-pronged approach of coaching and checking is helping to improve the consistency of teaching across the school. Staff shared a common consensus that there ‘has been a breath of life put into the school’ and for that they are proud and grateful.

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Since the previous inspection, there have been various versions of action plans in place that have been sufficient to bring the school to this point. Moving forward, you wish to structure the improvement planning so that it has a strong focus on teaching and learning, with clearly defined actions, timescales and impact statements.

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Members of the IEB and trust leaders have made significant investments in the school, both with time and finances. There is a commitment from all leaders and a moral purpose to ensure that pupils will have their complex needs known, recognised, understood and supported in a way that fully allows them to be ready for the next stage of education and life. Leaders are determined to bring this about. So far, they have focused on the right things in the right way and at the right time. However, they also know that the next stage of developing the curriculum will require further thinking, time, effort and expertise.

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I am copying this letter to the chair of the IEB, the Department for Education’s regional director and the director of children’s services for Herefordshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted reports website. Yours sincerely

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