Headteacher Update

December 2023

We have now received the report from the Pele Trust Review and we are delighted that it really reflects who we are as a school as well as providing some really helpful guidance on how we can tweak our practice to improve our provision further. Whilst this was in no way a replication of an OFSTED inspection, it is worth noting that the CEO of the Trust is a Lead Inspector, the Deputy CEO is an Inspector and there was also a retired His Majesty’s Inspector on the team, which demonstrates the rigour of the review. They visited nearly 40 lessons and spoke to numerous students throughout the two days and the following extracts highlights the tone of the full report:

The school has clear expectations for the behaviour of pupils and these are regularly reinforced so that pupils are very aware of them. The vast majority of lessons visited were very calm and orderly with learning proceeding without interruption. Pupils mostly demonstrate a positive attitude to their learning. The school has a well thought out system of rewards and sanctions that pupils are very aware of.

In all subjects, the National Curriculum is the basis of a broad, balanced and ambitious curriculum. Subject teams have carefully considered the content and sequencing of key topics to ensure progression over time. They have identified strategies for adapting the curriculum for SEND pupils, where necessary, without diluting the level of challenge or lowering expectations therefore everyone follows the same curriculum.

In all classrooms we identified some common strengths including

• Teacher subject knowledge
• Clear explanations and instructions
• Good modelling
• Positive teacher-pupil relationships
• Calm and orderly classrooms; compliant behaviour that enabled learning to take place with little or disruption
• SEND is an aspect of the school’s provision that is secure.

The personal development curriculum is good.

There are some obvious strengths within this area, referred to as Fit for Life. Notable elements of the PD curriculum include comprehensive extracurricular and enrichment opportunities, well thought out careers provision and a focus on developing cultural capital. The personal development curriculum is devised to ensure that all pupils are skilled, resilient and considerate in line with the school values.

The school has developed a strong culture of safeguarding and has highly effective systems in place.

Curriculum and pastoral leaders are committed to the school and incredibly loyal. They say they are part of a cohesive team and feel valued and appreciated.

Our first month as part of the Pele Trust has been extremely positive and we are delighted that The Duchess Community High School, Alnwick formally converted and joined on 1^st December. Valuable networks are already developing and collaboration is leading to improvement in provision across the schools. The ability to reflect with colleagues from other schools is fantastic, I know that I get an enormous amount from the Headteacher meetings and I also know that the other senior leader and subjects meetings are equally effective. Undoubtedly the decision to join will accelerate improvement for all schools in the Trust.

We have recently completed some analysis on the correlation between absence and progress/outcomes for the Year 11 that left in July. Unsurprisingly there is a direct link between stronger attendance and stronger progress, but the data is stark and shows just how important good attendance is for a child’s future. The following data is just an extract from our analysis, but paints a very clear picture. The P8 (Progress 8) figure should be at 0.0 if a child makes expected progress from their KS2 data. If the score is 1.0 that means that on average they do one grade better across all their subjects than expected and conversely if the score is -1.0 they perform 1 grade lower than expected across all their subjects. This difference can have a significant impact on the choices they are able to make for their post-16 education or training.

As I said the difference in outcomes is stark for those students who attend less. This is why we continue to prioritise school attendance and utilise all the strategies we can to help your child into school. Sadly, this does include fines, but we look to do all that we can to support parents in getting their children into school so that we can help them maximise their chances of success. It’s never too late to turn things around.

Finally, the final week of term will be a normal week with lessons running as usual, but there will be some assemblies to celebrate the achievements of students in each year group.  Christmas Dinner Day is Wednesday 13^th for KS3 and Thursday 14^th for KS4 and we will also be having a Christmas accessory day on Friday 15^th December where students can wear a jumper or an accessory for the day; we will be collecting £1 donations via School Gateway, please log in to make your donation.

We will be breaking up for Christmas at 1.10pm on Friday 22^nd December.

Best wishes
Jonathan