The Workplace

Inspection of The Workplace Down Road, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex TN39 4HS

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

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The executive headteacher of this school is Matt Jacobs. This school is part of SABDEN Multi 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), Jo Foulkes, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Gill Sole. 4 and 5 February 2025

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils who attend The Workplace have often had previously disrupted, negative experiences of education. Once they join this school, they benefit from staff getting to know them and building trusted, warm relationships. However, over time, the school has not fulfilled its duty to ensure that there have been strong and irrefutable arrangements to protect its pupils from potential risk of harm.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school’s high expectations for pupils’ achievement and conduct are not consistently lived out in pupils’ day-to-day experiences of the school and its curriculum. Pupils do not learn as well as they should in some subjects. There is an inconsistent approach to how staff manage behaviour. This leaves pupils feeing that their learning is interrupted.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The impact of the inappropriate behaviour of some pupils is evident in the quality and presentation of workbooks and the lack of respect, by some, of the school rules. This hampers how well prepared some pupils are for their next steps in their education and their lives.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils value and enjoy the vocational offer that is part of the school’s unique offer. While the school’s vision for this is not fully enacted, pupils experience success. They gain a greater understanding of what their next stage in education, employment and training may look like.

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

The board of trustees does not hold the school to account effectively. It has a poor oversight of some aspects of the school. This is particularly true around the school’s safeguarding arrangements and maintaining pupil records. The trust does not check the impact of the school’s actions to ensure that the quality of the education that pupils receive improves.

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

The school, with the support of the trust, has taken some initial positive steps to address the areas of significant concern in its provision. This is evident in the recent improvements that have been made to tackling endemic weaknesses in the safeguarding systems and processes. However, shortcomings remain in the school’s provision for its pupils, and more significantly, in how it ensures that their safety and welfare are of the utmost importance.

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

Pupils have significant gaps in their learning due to their previous experiences of school. The school has started to improve the curriculum to address these deficits. It checks on the gaps in pupils’ learning when they start at the school. The curriculum is designed to be flexible in order to address these gaps. The needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are identified quickly. The school is developing how it teaches the curriculum to ensure that pupils with SEND have their needs met fully.

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

The school has made reading a priority. There is now a systematic approach to supporting pupils with reading. This means that pupils who have gaps in their reading knowledge are supported to learn to read with increasing confidence. However, curriculum improvements 4 and 5 February 2025

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are not as well established in other subjects. For example, in mathematics, the school has not ensured that staff fully understand the structure of the curriculum and that they have the expertise to build pupils’ new learning successfully. This hampers pupils’ achievement in these subjects.

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The school’s provision for pupils’ personal development is mixed. The school ensures that it develops pupils’ awareness of some aspects of the wider world. This happens through work experience and trips out, as well as regularly hosting visitors into the school. However, the personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education curriculum is not as effective as it should be. This means that pupils do not have all the necessary information that they need to develop an age-appropriate awareness of life in modern Britain. This includes aspects such as fundamental British values and an appreciation of the differences that exist between people.

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The grown-up work-based environment the school has designed helps pupils to develop their interests and talents. There are well-considered opportunities to try different options. This helps pupils to re-engage with their learning while discovering what type of work they might want to do when they leave school.

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Pupils typically settle into school, and most pupils behave well. However, staff do not follow the school’s expectations for rules and routines consistently well. This means that some pupils do not have confidence in the school’s approach to managing pupils’ behaviour. It leads to a sense of unfairness among pupils, and it undermines what the school sets out to achieve. It also means that for some pupils, their learning is disrupted.

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The number of pupils who are persistently absent from school is high. The school attempts to identify when learning is missed through low attendance. Even so, many pupils miss out on important learning and development because they are not in school often enough.

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The school ensures that staff’s well-being is considered. Staff feel that leaders are considerate of their workload and what they need, professionally and personally, to carry out their roles. There is a sense of teamwork and support for each other across the staff.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are not effective.

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Safeguarding

Over time, the school has not ensured that its safeguarding practices have kept pupils safe from potential risk of harm. The school has not made sure that safeguarding concerns are fully and clearly recorded and that actions have been taken in a timely and appropriate manner.

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Safeguarding

Previously, the school has failed to check on the effectiveness of its open and transparent safeguarding culture. Over a considerable period of time, the school has not been reflective of its own practices to ensure that safeguarding policies, systems and processes have been kept under continuous review. It has relied heavily on external scrutiny, 4 and 5 February 2025

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without obtaining its own assurances about the effectiveness of its safeguarding practices. The school is now taking action to rectify where this weak practice has resulted in poor or incomplete record-keeping and suitable follow-up actions. However, the extent of this work is significant. The school has required additional staff capacity to address this issue, as well as maintain the day-to-day safeguarding of its pupils. As a result, despite the school’s work to bring about improvement, the systems to keep pupils safe and secure are not effective.

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The school does not carry out welfare checks on the high proportion of pupils who are absent from school with enough rigour. At times, there is not enough persistence to ensure that those pupils who are not in school are safe.

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Staff understand their responsibilities to safeguard pupils. They are vigilant and know how to report concerns. However, until very recently, there has not been enough attention paid to supporting staff in the quality and clarity of reporting such concerns. Furthermore, the school’s actions to address concerns have not been swift enough. However, the school keeps the necessary records on the suitability of staff to work in the school.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The school has failed to ensure that there are effective systems in place to keep pupils safe from potential risk of harm. Over time, there has been a lack of rigour and accurate oversight to get the necessary assurances about the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements. As a result, concerns about pupils have not been routinely followed up, and at times, not acted on in a timely and appropriate manner. The school must build on its recent actions to improve safeguarding with greater urgency so that pupils are safe and protected.  Those responsible for governance do not have effective strategic oversight of the school’s weaknesses. They do not carry out the necessary checks to ensure that the school is taking the action required to keep pupils safe and to ensure that they experience a good quality of education. The trust must ensure that it has the necessary skills and expertise to challenge weaknesses in the school’s provision for its pupils.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Many pupils are persistently absent. This means that they miss out on the essential education that they need to prepare them for their future. Checks on their welfare when they are absent lack rigour. The school must ensure that it clearly identifies and addresses the barriers to pupils attending school regularly so that the attendance of pupils who are persistently absent significantly improves.  Pupils do not benefit from a carefully designed PSHE curriculum to support their personal development. The school has not clearly identified where key aspects of learning, such as fundamental British values, differences between people and awareness of world religions are taught. The school should review these aspects of the PSHE curriculum to ensure that pupils are fully prepared for life beyond school. 4 and 5 February 2025

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 The behaviour policy is not applied consistently well. This leads to pupils lacking confidence in the policy’s effectiveness, which negatively impacts on how some pupils respond to the expectations it sets out. Furthermore, it hinders how well pupils learn. The school must ensure that staff widely understand and implement the behaviour policy as it is intended.

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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). 4 and 5 February 2025

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 12 and 13 September 2023, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The Workplace provides 94 places for pupils in Year 9 through to Year 11 to study an alternative educational provision. While at The Workplace, pupils remain on the roll of their mainstream school.  Some Year 9 pupils attend the school on a two- or three-day part-time timetable, spending their remaining time in their dual registered school.  The school does not use any alternative provision.  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.  Inspectors were aware during this inspection that serious allegations of a child protection nature were being investigated by the appropriate authorities. While Ofsted does not have the power to investigate allegations of this kind, actions taken by the school in response to the allegations were considered alongside the other evidence

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Information about this school

available at the time of the inspection to inform inspectors’ judgements. 4 and 5 February 2025

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this inspection under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We deemed the inspection a graded (section 5) inspection under the same Act. 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.

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Information about this inspection

In accordance with section 44(2) of the Education Act 2005, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires significant improvement, because it is performing significantly less well than it might in all the circumstances reasonably be expected to perform.

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Information about this inspection

 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 inspection was carried out following a complaint made to Ofsted that raised serious concerns. His Majesty’s Chief Inspector decided that an inspection of the school should take place to follow up the whole-school issues that were raised. Inspectors sought to establish whether the arrangements for keeping pupils safe from risk of harm were effective.  Inspectors held discussions with the executive headteacher, the director of operations for the trust, the trust’s CEO, the designated safeguarding leader, the leader for SEND and other members of the leadership team.  Inspectors spoke with representatives from the local authority, including the local authority designated officer. The lead inspector spoke with the school’s external adviser

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Information about this inspection

and the chair of trustees.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, inspectors: reviewed the single central record; sampled records of safeguarding concerns; 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.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: English, mathematics, and art and design. For each deep dive, inspectors held discussions about the curriculum, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  Inspectors were not able to visit lessons as the school had a partial school closure in effect to ensure Year 11 pupils could carry out their mock examinations with the appropriate levels of support.  The inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour around the school site and gathered pupils’

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Information about this inspection

views about behaviour. 4 and 5 February 2025

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 The inspectors analysed school documentation, including leaders’ evaluations and plans for improvement. The inspectors scrutinised a range of policies and procedures, including those that relate to the curriculum, SEND, safeguarding and behaviour.  Inspectors considered the responses to Ofsted Parent View, including the free-text comments. Inspectors also considered the views of parents gathered by the school.  The inspectors spoke with staff to gather their views about the school and evaluated their responses to Ofsted’s online staff survey.  An inspector spoke to Year 11 pupils who were on site during the inspection. Inspectors considered the responses from pupils in Year 9 and Year 10 to Ofsted’s online pupil survey. Inspectors also considered the views of pupils gathered by the school.

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Inspection team

Leanne Thirlby, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Dave Gilkerson His Majesty’s Inspector 4 and 5 February 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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