Baginton Fields School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Baginton Fields School

Following my visit to the school on 27 June 2018 with Sarah Ashley, Ofsted Inspector, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be good in November 2013.

This school continues to be good. The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You, together with other leaders and governors, have ensured that the strengths of the school have been sustained and built upon.

Though you have only recently been appointed as headteacher, you have been ...an established member of the leadership team since the last inspection. You have ensured that the good quality of education in the school has been maintained since the last inspection. You have worked closely with your newly appointed deputy headteacher and assistant headteachers to examine ways in which you can improve the curriculum and assessment to the benefit of all pupils.

You are focused on providing an enriched curriculum that caters for academic and personal and social development, while ensuring that teaching remains consistently good. The impact of the enrichment activities that you have introduced shows the clear progress that pupils are making in both academic achievements and social developments. Your staff are dedicated to the pupils and are motivated well by the senior leadership team.

They adapt to new initiatives with enthusiasm and feel inspired by your leadership. The positive relationships that staff show the pupils encourage them to have the confidence to try new things. Through your robust continuing professional development programme, staff have had ample opportunities to develop their knowledge and understanding of special educational need, and most staff now use this knowledge to ensure that they set appropriate tasks for all pupils.

When staff find it difficult to provide appropriate tasks, leaders have a clear plan of action to ensure that they will have the necessary skills to help pupils, including those who are the most able, to reach their full potential. Baginton Fields is a happy, relaxed and friendly school. My colleagues and I were made to feel very welcome by all staff and pupils.

The pupils are confident, respectful and invariably polite. They were excited to share the pride that they felt in their school. Their work is proudly displayed around school.

Pupils told inspectors that their fundraising ideas were valued by all adults in school, and shared photographs of some of the projects that they had worked on, including a coffee morning for cancer charities, sponsored swims and bag packing for a local homeless charity. There is a strong emphasis on spiritual, moral, social and cultural aspects of learning, and these are firmly embedded in your school. Leaders recognise the importance of the mental and physical well-being of all pupils and provide pupils with the opportunities to learn academically and behaviourally, thus preparing them for adulthood.

The personal, health and social education (PHSE) curriculum is a vital and strong aspect of what you provide for your pupils, as they learn about the reasons behind substance misuse, eating healthily and staying safe in the community and online. The designated information and technology suite allows pupils to gain a certain degree of independence. There are good reminders to pupils on how to stay safe online, with posters advising pupils how to alert adults if they are concerned or worried about what they have seen or heard on the internet.

Members of the governing body are supportive of the new leadership team and your aspirations. The governing body has a range of skills that complement those of the senior leadership team and is committed to providing a balance of challenge and support. Governors share the staff's enthusiasm about the new assessment process that leaders have implemented, and understand the need to ensure that tracking systems, including those relating to accidents and incidents, are robust.

Safeguarding is effective. There is a strong safeguarding culture at Baginton Fields School. You ensure that protecting pupils and keeping them safe is a key priority for everyone.

You and the leadership team have made sure that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and take account of the needs of the pupils in the school. Pupils' medical needs are well supported and the necessary checks are in place. There are appropriate procedures to ensure that staff register all of their concerns.

Senior leaders follow these up immediately. There are clear protocols for dealing with absences and pupils missing from school. When there have been safeguarding incidents, school leaders have followed the school's own and the local authority's procedures to the letter.

Safeguarding training is regularly provided for all staff so they know what to do and who to contact when they have any concerns. Throughout the school, pupils are taught about the potential risks and dangers they might face as they grow up. As a result, you raise pupils' awareness of how to keep safe, including when they are online.

Pupils said they feel safe and well looked after at school. Staff use a range of techniques to help pupils to manage and regulate their own behaviours. Leaders have introduced support systems to improve pupils' mental health and well-being, including working with child and adolescent mental health services.

On rare occasions and for a small group of pupils, staff need to use physical interventions to assist pupils in managing their behaviours. Logs of behaviour incidents and analysis of behaviours show that these interventions are having a positive impact on the frequency of interventions and there is a significant downward trend for those pupils with behavioural needs. Inspection findings ? You and your deputy headteacher are recently appointed.

You have begun to steer the school further forwards by providing drive and ambition. You are addressing the areas for improvement identified in the previous inspection report. ? Training records show that staff, including those who are newly appointed, have access to a wide range of high-quality training.

There has been significant training for all staff to understand the challenges faced by the pupils on the autistic spectrum and those with profound and multiple learning difficulties. ? Through the range of staff training, teaching is now more focused on the diverse needs and abilities of pupils. Where staff use a range of techniques and tasks which are well-matched to pupils' abilities, pupils are able to extend their learning to reach their full potential.

However, in some lessons the most able pupils are not provided with the next steps necessary to consolidate their learning. ? The curriculum offered provides an equal balance of academic, enrichment and social skills. Pupils make good progress from their starting points, with the majority of pupils making at least expected progress.

Where progress is not as strong, leaders have implemented a range of intervention strategies to ensure that gaps in learning are quickly identified and addressed. A strong focus is placed on social achievements, and pupils are able to earn awards, such as 'Good Citizenship'. For example, links with a local business provided pupils with the opportunity to create a challenge day by creating fruit vehicles and growing plants in used tyres.

In some lessons in key stages 3 and 4, there is not enough challenge to help the most able pupils to achieve their full potential. ? Leaders have striven to improve attendance, and the strategies they have applied demonstrate a notable progression in the reduction of persistent absences. Intervention strategies include support for families through the use of a family liaison officer and a school nurse.

Good communication between home, transport providers and school ensures that leaders have secure and up-to-date knowledge regarding illnesses and complex medical concerns of pupils. In some rare instances, communication has not been as strong as it should have been, and leaders have identified the need to ensure that a more rigorous contact system is in place. ? At the end of key stage 5, pupils are entered for entry-level examinations in both academic and vocational subjects.

Older learners are well prepared for life in modern Britain, as they are provided with a range of careers advice and information. Through the careers days, links with local colleges and local businesses, pupils are able to develop an understanding about the job opportunities that are available. The focus on employability and independent life skills is a clear strength, as pupils take part in enterprise activities, projects with other local schools and colleges, community fundraising days and ASDAN courses.

Work experience opportunities have been limited to internal activities, with a minority of pupils having access to wider community work experiences. ? You have recently introduced a new assessment system for recording and tracking pupils' progress. This system breaks down the curriculum into smaller steps and enables the tracking of life skills for pupils on the autistic spectrum.

It is not yet firmly established across all key stages, and governors and staff recognise that, with the changing and diverse needs of the pupils, the system requires further consolidation. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? the new assessment system is embedded to ensure consistency across all key stages ? there is robust tracking and analysis of accidents and incidents. ? appropriate challenge is provided to all pupils in academic areas and wider community and employability projects.

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Coventry. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Kim Ellis Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection I met with you and senior leaders to discuss progress since the last inspection, your school's self-evaluation and the key lines of enquiry for this inspection.

We agreed a plan for the rest of the day. My colleague and I spoke to several members of staff about the curriculum, assessment, behaviour, and welfare and attendance. I spoke with members of the governing body, including the chair of governors and the designated lead for safeguarding.

We visited classrooms to observe pupils and staff at work, met with members of the school council and observed behaviour at lunchtime. We looked at samples of pupils' work from all key stages, including further education. We looked at many documents, including the school's self-evaluation, school improvement plan, local authority's recorded visits, minutes from governing body meetings, the single central record for safeguarding and staff files.

We looked at six responses to Ofsted's Parent View questionnaire. We considered the school's own parent and pupil surveys. We also considered the views of 13 staff who completed the online questionnaire.