Hewens College

Inspection of Hewens College Hewens Road, Hayes, Middlesex UB4 8JP

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

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The principal of this school is Marlene Littlefair. This school is part of The Rosedale Hewens 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), Marie Ashley, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Stewart Duguid. 7 and 8 May 2025

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils and staff are proud to belong to Hewens College. They value highly the positive shift in culture that has been fostered across all areas of school life. Pupils enjoy attending this inclusive school and feel safe. Staff take the time to build positive relationships with pupils. Staff prioritise raising aspirations and reducing barriers so that all pupils can be successful.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The curriculum is designed well, but there are inconsistencies in how well it is taught. Teachers have high expectations for students in the sixth form, who rise to meet them. However, published outcomes for key stage 4 pupils have been lower than national averages in recent years.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders have improved behaviour and attendance in a short period of time. Pupils speak positively about the sense of community in the school. Most pupils are motivated to learn. They display positive conduct in lessons and during social times. This helps the school to promote a calm and purposeful culture for learning.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school’s focus on pupils’ personal development is a key factor in its success. This helps create the school’s very positive climate and promotes pupils’ commitment to their learning. To enhance their learning, pupils choose from a wide range of extra-curricular activities and educational visits, for example trips to Kew Gardens and the Bank of England. Pupils appreciate these wider opportunities.

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

School and trust leaders are committed to ensuring that every pupil gets the best education possible. Pupils are always at the heart of the school’s decision-making. Since the last inspection, the school and trust leaders have continued to improve the school, most notably the behaviour and attendance of pupils. Staff feel valued. They appreciate how leaders look after their well-being and workload.

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

A strength of the school is its enrichment programme, which aims to provide pupils with broad experiences beyond their academic and vocational studies. This includes a wide offer for clubs and educational visits. The school offers a rich personal, social, health and economic education curriculum. Pupils know it is important to respect and celebrate differences between themselves and others, such as their race or religion. The careers programme is well developed. It enables pupils to learn about the educational requirements for a range of professions and to make well-informed decisions about their next steps.

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

There are robust systems in place to ensure that pupils attend every day. The school does everything it can to make sure pupils are in school so they can benefit from all the opportunities on offer. As a result of this work, pupils’ attendance is improving.

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

The school’s approach to behaviour management mirrors its focus on continual improvement. As a consequence of the increased behaviour expectations, the behaviour 7 and 8 May 2025

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of pupils in school has improved significantly. Pupils and staff appreciate these positive changes. Lessons are calm and purposeful.

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Following the previous inspection, leaders have refined the school’s curriculum. It is carefully sequenced and suitably broad, including in the sixth form. Published outcomes in 2024 were stronger than previously across most areas. Despite this, they remain below national averages in a number of subjects. Leaders have implemented ongoing training, which helps keep staff up to date with current approaches to teaching and learning. However, across the curriculum, teaching does not design learning activities consistently to enable pupils to achieve the ambitious aims of the curriculum. This limits pupils’ deeper knowledge and understanding.

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Typically, teachers know pupils well and make appropriate adaptions to help them learn well. Sometimes, checks on pupils’ understanding do not identify gaps in understanding. On occasion, the school does not give some pupils the opportunity to extend and deepen their learning. In the sixth form, students benefit from learning activities that help develop their knowledge in sufficient depth. This means that they complete work to a high standard and recall key knowledge and skills well.

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The school identifies effectively any special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) that pupils may have. Staff have information about pupils’ needs, though this sometimes is not at precise as it could be. On the whole, teachers use the information they have to adapt learning activities appropriately. However, sometimes, pupils with SEND are hindered by the same weaknesses in the delivery of the curriculum as their peers.

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Some pupils’ access to, and achievement across, the curriculum is hampered by weaknesses in their literacy. Leaders recognise this and have put support in place, including for the high number of pupils who speak English as an additional language. Pupils who struggle with reading receive some support to help them access the curriculum successfully. Teachers are working to build a culture of reading, to expand pupils’ vocabulary and to promote their oracy and writing skills.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Expectations of pupils’ learning are not high enough across the curriculum. The work given to pupils does not give them secure opportunities to develop deeper thinking of important subject content. The school should ensure that the work given to pupils provides them with the opportunity to develop their subject-specific skills effectively across the curriculum. 7 and 8 May 2025

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 In some subjects, the checking of pupils’ previous knowledge and understanding is not consistently strong. As a result, some pupils have gaps in what they know and remember. The school needs to ensure that teachers have the expertise to assess accurately where pupils have gaps and address them promptly, so that pupils develop the intended depth of knowledge across the curriculum.

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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). 7 and 8 May 2025

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form

Date of previous inspection 18 April 2024, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The college is part of The Rosedale Hewens Academy Trust.  No pupils currently attend 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.

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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 7 and 8 May 2025

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(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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 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 leaders and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors met with the principal, vice-principal and members of the trust and school leadership.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: mathematics, science, religious education, citizenship, and design and technology. For each deep dive, inspectors discussed the curriculum with subject leaders, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  Inspectors also visited lessons and reviewed pupils’ work in some other subjects.  Inspectors reviewed a range of documentation, including leaders’ school evaluation, the school development plan, records for behaviour and attendance, and information

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about pupils’ personal development.  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.  Inspectors considered responses to Ofsted’s online staff and pupil surveys. They also considered responses to the online survey, Ofsted Parent View, including free-text messages.

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Inspection team

Sam Johnson, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Eliot Wong Ofsted Inspector 7 and 8 May 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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