Cornfield School, Littlehampton

Cornfield School, Littlehampton

Address: Cornfield Close, Littlehampton, West Sussex, BN17 6HY Unique reference number (URN): 126170

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Safeguarding standards met

The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, pupils are made safer and feel safe.

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How we evaluate safeguarding

When we inspect schools for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:

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How we evaluate safeguarding

Met: The school has an open and positive culture of safeguarding. All legal requirements are met. Not met: The school has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all legal requirements are met.

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Attendance and behaviour Expected standard

Leaders prioritise attendance. Work to improve attendance is underpinned by leaders' detailed understanding of it across the school. Leaders analyse attendance information carefully. They use this to inform their work effectively. Leaders ensure that pupils who need additional help to attend more regularly receive it from skilled staff. Leaders offer practical solutions to pupils or make timely referrals to other agencies. This support is effective and improves the attendance of these pupils. The overall impact is evident in the recent significant rise in attendance figures so that they now compare favourably with similar provisions.

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Attendance and behaviour Expected standard

Pupils behave well. They show positive attitudes to learning. When pupils struggle with their behaviour, they have appropriate strategies to manage this themselves or they can choose to work positively with staff, if required. This helps to create a calm and purposeful atmosphere, which is clear during the calm lunchtimes. Pupils chat happily with staff and each other. Staff have high expectations of pupils. They model these carefully and apply the well-designed school routines consistently. This gives pupils clear boundaries to operate within.

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Attendance and behaviour Expected standard

The school carefully tracks significant incidents, such as discriminatory language. Staff take these incidents seriously and address them quickly. Staff support pupils to consider their own actions and reflect on them. This has led to a significant reduction in serious incidents.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Staff know pupils well. This helps them to accurately identify pupils' needs. The school has a clear understanding of the barriers that pupils face, particularly to developing their social, emotional and mental health needs. Leaders use this information to plan a range of support to address these barriers. The school’s work to break down these barriers is consistently effective. This helps pupils to engage positively with learning, despite many having a history of non-engagement. The school supports pupils to develop effective strategies to manage their own emotions and regulate their behaviour.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Due to weakness in the curriculum, support for pupils to address barriers to academic learning is less effective and, at times, lacks the precision needed. That said, staff receive appropriate training, and, on the whole, they understand how best to help pupils. Leaders make appropriate use of external professionals and agencies to strengthen the support they give to pupils.

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Inclusion Expected standard

The school has designed an appropriate pupil premium strategy. This is closely aligned to the barriers to success that pupils face. Leaders track the impact of their work precisely. The school has clear systems to monitor pupils’ progress against their individual targets. They break these down into clear steps and track progress against them carefully.

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Personal development and wellbeing Expected standard

The school ensures that the curriculum extends far beyond the classroom. For example, it includes well-planned outdoor learning activities. The school plans engaging trips that expand pupils' learning. Pupils benefit from ample opportunities to develop a broader range of skills and talents. The school provides an extensive offer of clubs and activities during the school day. Leaders match these activities to the interests of pupils accurately. As a result, pupils engage positively with them.

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Personal development and wellbeing Expected standard

The school prepares pupils effectively for their next steps. The school has a well-designed personal, social and health education curriculum. This helps pupils develop secure knowledge of key concepts such as healthy relationships and how to stay safe online. The impact of the personal development programme is evident in the resilience and independence that pupils show. Pupils learn important leadership skills through the active school council. This gives pupils a clear voice in the school. It also gives pupils a first-hand experience of important concepts, such as democracy. Pupils take these roles seriously, and many pupils aspire to hold them. Pupils benefit from the school’s ambitious enrichment offer. Leaders manage this with careful planning and tracking, for example, through the use of pupil premium funding to break down financial barriers and ensure accessibility for all.

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Personal development and wellbeing Expected standard

The school has designed an effective careers programme. This begins in key stage 3 with a well-designed careers education. The school enhances this through their popular 'focus days'. These provide pupils with the key life skills of resilience and ambition that they need. Older pupils benefit from a wide range of experiences of employment. Examples include regular meetings with skilled mentors and well-designed work experience opportunities. However, the careers advice that pupils receive is not as impactful as it needs to be, and the school has not developed a structured approach to this. The school has an appropriate provider access statement. It fulfils its statutory responsibilities appropriately.

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Achievement Needs attention

Pupils' progress through the curriculum is variable. They develop a broad understanding of the topics that they learn. However, as a result of weaknesses in the curriculum, pupils do not have the key skills in reading, writing and mathematics that they need to learn as well as they could. Typically, older pupils can write with accuracy. However, too many younger pupils lack basic writing skills and do not read fluently. As a result, these pupils do not progress through the curriculum as well as they should and make progress from their starting points.

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Achievement Needs attention

Older pupils achieve well in the range of qualifications that they sit, including vital mathematics and English outcomes. This experience of success for Year 11 pupils, with most achieving multiple qualifications, helps them to move to their next stage with increasing confidence. Pupils are generally prepared well for their next steps. It enables pupils to maintain sustained participation in their next destinations.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Leaders know that the curriculum is not currently effective enough. They have begun work to develop it and ensure that staff are trained well to deliver the improvements made. This work is in its earliest stages and its impact is unknown. Leaders have clear ambition for the curriculum. They have identified the skills and knowledge that they want pupils to learn as they move towards ambitious end points. However, leaders do not have a precise enough understanding of pupils' starting points. This means that the curriculum does not address pupils' gaps in reading, writing and mathematics effectively enough. The curriculum is more successful for older pupils. It typically provides them with the key skills and knowledge they need for their next steps.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Staff explain learning clearly and model skills accurately. However, teachers do not consider pupils’ starting points effectively enough when designing activities. As a result, pupils do not always have the knowledge they need to complete learning tasks effectively and build on their learning over time. Teachers have secure subject knowledge. This is most effective when teachers work with pupils closely to develop their understanding. However, this is hampered by teachers' limited understanding of the gaps in pupils' knowledge.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

The school rightly identifies that governance needs strengthening. Governors are committed to the work of the school. However, they have limited understanding of the school’s work. Leaders have begun to address this. Governors broadly fulfil their statutory duties but do not have the detailed knowledge that they need to be effective in some areas. For example, they do not have full oversight of the impact of the school’s pupil premium strategy.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

Leaders have an ambitious plan for improvement and a clear vision for the school. They have designed a well-considered programme of professional staff learning to support this. Leaders have rightly focused on developing a calm and positive environment. This has been successful and has created a purposeful atmosphere in which pupils can learn. Leaders empower staff to manage behaviour effectively. This has resulted in a significant reduction in serious incidents. Leaders recognise that there is work required to develop the curriculum. They have made initial steps towards this but know this now requires greater focus.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

Leaders actively seek professional support and guidance to support them establishing themselves successfully as a new team. They work positively with the local authority to identify clear solutions for pupils' high levels of need.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

Leaders know their pupils well. They care deeply about them and work hard to create a culture in which they can thrive. While this does require some further focus in areas such as the curriculum, leaders work in the best interests of pupils tirelessly. They model high expectations clearly, and the staff team works in the same positive manner.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Pupils are proud to attend Cornfield. Many arrive with historic negative attitudes to education. The school works hard to break these barriers down quickly. Pupils develop strategies to manage their behaviour and to express how they feel in a positive manner. This means that pupils build strong relationships with staff. Pupils trust staff deeply and know that they will help them to deal with any issues they have effectively. As a result of this work, pupils feel safe and happy in school. This also helps pupils to behave very well. Staff know the pupils well. They use this knowledge to identify quickly pupils who may need additional help to manage their behaviour. Pupils respond positively to this and return to learning quickly. The school is a calm and respectful environment. This helps pupils to become increasingly confident and independent.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

The school ensures that pupils have the skills they need to be ready to learn. This helps them to concentrate well and work hard. Older pupils are typically well-prepared for their next steps. They achieve a wide range of qualifications and have a broad experience of the world of work. This supports them to be successful in their next steps after school. However, some younger pupils arrive with significant gaps in learning, and, while the school has begun to address this, it is too early to show the impact of this work. As a result, these pupils do not achieve as well as they could.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Pupils enjoy school. They benefit from high levels of care. Pupils enjoy the wide range of activities that the school offers. For example, pupils broaden their skills and talents through well-planned enrichment activities. Pupils are keen to discuss these exciting experiences. They benefit positively from these opportunities, and this equips pupils well for life beyond school.

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Next steps

• Leaders should ensure that staff have what they need to gain a more accurate and precise knowledge of pupils' starting points to enable them to better shape the curriculum to meet pupils' changing needs and successfully address gaps in pupils' academic learning, particularly their foundational skills and knowledge. • The school should ensure that all pupils have access to appropriate careers advice that provides them with a broad understanding of all the next steps available to them. • Leaders should continue their work to strengthen the governing body and ensure that governors have appropriate knowledge to offer greater levels of support and challenge to the school.

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About this inspection

The chair of the board of governors in this school is Paul Amoo.

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About this inspection

Inspectors carried out this full inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Facts and figures used on inspection

The data was used by the inspector(s) during the inspection. More recent data may have been published since the inspection took place.

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What does this mean?

The total number of pupils currently at this school and how this compares to other schools of Following our renewed inspection framework, all inspectors are now led by His Majesty's Inspectors (HMIs) or by Ofsted Inspectors (OIs) who have previously served as HMIs.

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What does this mean?

The inspectors met with the headteacher and other leaders during the inspection. The lead inspector also met with a group of governors, including the chair. They also held an online meeting with representatives of the local authority. The inspection team also spoke to indicative groups of staff and pupils during the inspection.

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What does this mean?

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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What does this mean?

The inspectors confirmed the following information about the school:

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What does this mean?

The school also, under the same registration, runs an off-site unit.

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What does this mean?

The senior leadership team has changed since the last inspection.

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What does this mean?

The school uses 2 unregistered alternative provisions for a small number of pupils.

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What does this mean?

Stuart Simpson: Headteacher this phase in England.

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What does this mean?

The total number of pupils who can attend the school and how this compares to other schools of this phase in England.

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What does this mean?

The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years.

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What does this mean?

The proportion of pupils with an education, health and care plan. This covers pupils with more support than is available through special educational needs support.

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What does this mean?

The proportion of pupils with reported special educational support needs at the school.

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What does this mean?

Based on the English Indices of Deprivation (2019) and the school's location, we have calculated whether the school is located in a more or less deprived area.

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What does this mean?

Whether school has Resourced Provision or SEND unit (if applicable).

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What does this mean?

The type of Special Educational Needs provision provided at the school (if applicable).

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Destinations after 16

Percentage of pupils staying in education or employment for at least 2 terms after the end of secondary school (key stage 4).

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Overall absence

The percentage of all possible mornings and afternoons missed due to absence from school (for whatever reason, whether authorised or unauthorised) across all pupils.

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Persistent absence

The percentage of pupils missing 10% or more of their possible mornings and afternoons.

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Exceptional

Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other schools can learn from it.

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Strong standard

The school reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of them.

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Expected standard

The school is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional standards expected of them.

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Needs attention

The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements.

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Urgent improvement

The school needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of education and/or care. services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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