Setting

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

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Matt Jacobs Executive headteacher College Central 124 Brodrick Road Eastbourne East Sussex BN22 9RB

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Special measures monitoring inspection of College Central

This letter sets out the findings from the monitoring inspection that took place on 1 and 2 April 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 second monitoring inspection since the school was judged to require special measures following the graded (section 5) inspection that took place in February 2024.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of College Central

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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Special measures monitoring inspection of College Central

During the inspection, I discussed with you and other senior leaders, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the trust, the chair of trustees and 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 met with staff, reviewed attendance and safeguarding information, carried out lesson visits, reviewed pupils’ work and support plans and completed a scrutiny of strategic documents. I have considered all this in coming to my judgement.

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College Central continues to require special measures. Leaders have made

insufficient progress to improve the school.

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The position regarding the appointment of early career teachers will be

considered again during any monitoring inspection we carry out.

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The position regarding the appointment of early career teachers will be

The school should take further action to:

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The position regarding the appointment of early career teachers will be

 ensure that record-keeping about low-level concerns involving allegations about adults working at the school meets statutory requirements.

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The progress made towards the removal of special measures

Since the previous monitoring visit, the capacity of leadership has declined. A small number of staff, including the executive headteacher, are regularly deployed to another school in the trust. In addition, the oversight of safeguarding throughout the entire provision has reduced. The local authority has maintained its agreement to reduce the number of places at the school. However, due to a lack of leadership capacity, the school has not been able to take advantage of this to make necessary improvements. With the changes in the deployment of staff, the trust has given additional responsibility to school leaders. However, these responsibilities have not come with sufficient resources that would enable leaders to fulfil them. This means that oversight of improvement in a number of areas, including safeguarding, early reading, attendance and the provision for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), has not been effective.

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The progress made towards the removal of special measures

There is a new chair of the board of trustees. The board of trustees recognises that trust oversight and challenge has not been robust enough to this point to secure improvements in the school. The trust intends to embed a culture of professional curiosity, where challenge and support is effective. However, this work is at an early stage and has not had an impact on the quality of the provision to date.

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The progress made towards the removal of special measures

The primary-aged pupils placed in the flexible learning provision continue to receive an effective education. In this phase, a broad curriculum is taught well by suitably trained staff. Pupils engage in ambitious learning and achieve well. In the primary phase, staff are expert teachers of phonics. They put in place appropriate activities, which match the school’s chosen scheme. Pupils in the primary phase are learning to read well.

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The progress made towards the removal of special measures

In the secondary phase, there is now a sequenced and ambitious curriculum in place. This curriculum sets out the knowledge pupils will learn and in what order clearly. However, the implementation of this curriculum is at an early stage. There has been insufficient improvement in the provision for pupils to learn to read since the last monitoring inspection. While all staff have had specialist phonics training to deliver the school’s chosen scheme, baseline checks to identify pupils’ gaps in phonics knowledge are not complete. As a result, there are currently no interventions or lessons taking place to support secondary pupils who are at an early stage of reading.

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The progress made towards the removal of special measures

During the last monitoring visit, it was identified that the school had recruited a special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) to have oversight of the provision for pupils with SEND across both secondary sites. However, since then, the SENCo has been regularly used to cover staff absence and has been deployed to another trust school. Therefore, the school has not ensured that the SENCo has the time and resources to fulfil their role. While all pupils are identified as pupils with SEND, there is a lack of strategic thinking about how to meet their needs. This means that there are no interventions or activities in place that precisely meet the often complex social, emotional and mental health, or communication and interaction needs of pupils. The school has not provided sufficient training to staff about SEND. Overall, pupils’ needs are not being identified well and not being met effectively.

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The progress made towards the removal of special measures

The leaders of the two secondary sites have begun to work together more consistently than previously. However, this work is new and impeded by issues with leadership capacity. Therefore, there are still some inconsistencies in how the sites work together and differences in the quality of the provision that pupils receive.

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The progress made towards the removal of special measures

Staff are positive about working in the school. While still experiencing a period of uncertainty and change with the planned move to a new academy trust, they remain motivated and committed to their roles. They want to achieve the best for pupils and demonstrate this through the positive and nurturing relationships that they build with them.

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The progress made towards the removal of special measures

There has been no improvement in pupils’ attendance since the last inspection. While the attendance figure of pupils in the primary phase is slowly improving, the attendance of pupils in the secondary site remains extremely low. In the secondary phase, nearly all pupils are persistently absent. Most pupils are also severely absent, with attendance rates below 50%. While some action has been taken to improve attendance, it has not been sufficient to identify and remove the barriers that prevent pupils from attending school. The school uses attendance plans and contracts to improve pupils’ attendance. However, not enough pupils are currently in receipt of this level of support. The impact, therefore, of the school’s work is minimal. In some instances, pupils’ attendance has deteriorated further.

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The progress made towards the removal of special measures

Safeguarding remains ineffective. Safeguarding records show a chronology of the support in place for pupils and their families. Staff understand how to share concerns about a pupil and do so well and frequently. Safeguarding records also show the strong working relationship that the school has with external agencies to secure support for pupils who need it. However, there is not an effective culture for managing allegations about adults. Staff do not clearly understand the process to follow when they have a concern about an adult. More specifically, there is a lack of understanding about what needs to be recorded as a low-level concern when an allegation is made by a pupil. Consequently, there are a number of low-level incidents or allegations involving adults working in the school, which have not been recorded as low-level concerns, as required and set out within statutory guidance.

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The progress made towards the removal of special measures

I am copying this letter to the chair of the board of trustees and the CEO of the Sabden Multi-Academy Trust, the Department for Education’s regional director and the director of children’s services for East Sussex. This letter will be published on the Ofsted reports website.

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