Broadoak School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Broadoak School

Following my visit to the school on 9 January 2019 with David Roberts, 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 May 2015. This school continues to be good.

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You, the local governing body and the multi-academy trust have worked together strategically to introduce changes over time. You have maintained the school's strengths while making lasting improvements to the quality of edu...cation and standards of behaviour in the school.

Pupils, parents and carers, and staff have confidence in the school's leadership, including governance, at all levels. Pupils enjoy well-established routines and respond positively to staff's insistence that they arrive at lessons on time, in an orderly fashion, with the correct equipment and ready to learn. You, senior leaders, other staff and, sometimes, the chief executive officer of the trust greet pupils as they enter the school.

This reinforces high expectations of attitudes and conduct and sets a purposeful tone for the school day. As a result of these continually reinforced expectations, lessons proceed without interruption and the time available for learning is maximised. You have a realistic view of the school's strengths and of what still needs to improve.

Members of the trust and local governing body bring to their roles a range of skills which enable them not only to support you but also to ask questions which hold you and your staff team to account for standards and quality in the school. In May 2015, inspectors asked you to improve rates of progress for the most able pupils, develop teachers' questioning skills and improve the neatness of pupils' work and the accuracy of their spelling. They also asked you to ensure that leadership was consistently good in all areas and to involve parents more in the life of the school and in their children's education.

You have addressed these areas with considerable success. Teachers and leaders have raised expectations of what pupils can and should achieve. You have successfully developed teachers' questioning skills and ensured a high level of consistency across classrooms in relation to questioning, which develops higher-order thinking skills.

More academically demanding programmes of work across all subjects now give the most able pupils better opportunities to reach their full potential. Since the last inspection, the progress and attainment of the most able pupils have increased year-on-year. However, taking account of what pupils achieved at the end of Year 6, across the range of subjects which they study, this group still makes less progress than pupils of middle and lower ability in the school.

Teachers now give more attention to spelling and expect pupils to take the time to present their written work well. Pupils' books show they take pride in their work and folders and are careful to organise them in ways which help them to revisit and revise topics. Careless spelling mistakes are rare.

Pupils make sure that, in redrafting work after teachers' feedback, they rectify spelling errors. Senior and middle leaders who were new to their role at the time of the last inspection have grown in confidence and experience. Newer leaders are well supported by the school and the trust.

Both new and well-established subject leaders have identified appropriate areas for development and their actions are having a positive impact on their areas of responsibility. Opportunities to work in other schools in the trust give leaders the chance to broaden their experience and have a wider influence. In this small school, these opportunities contribute to the retention of effective staff and to planning for succession should any leaders move on.

You and your staff have worked tenaciously to involve parents more in the life of the school. Attendance at parents' evenings has more than doubled since the last inspection. For the first time there is a parents' council and, for the first time since the school became part of the trust, there is a parent on the governing body.

Safeguarding is effective. All adults and pupils understand that safeguarding is everyone's responsibility. Your school is a vigilant community.

Parents and pupils have confidence in the systems and policies that you have put in place to keep pupils safe from physical and emotional harm. Staff undertake regular training to keep them up to date and to ensure that they know how to spot signs of abuse or neglect. You have carried out all the checks necessary to make sure that adults in the school are suitable to work with children and young people.

Vulnerable pupils feel happy and safe in the school because of strong pastoral care. Staff and visitors teach pupils how to keep themselves safe from the dangers presented by the internet and social media. Inspection findings ? I was interested to know why, historically, so few pupils have taken GCSE examinations in the suite of subjects which make up the English Baccalaureate (EBacc).

Your school has long-standing strengths in applied and vocational subjects but very few pupils opted to study a modern foreign language, history or geography. For at least three years pupils have underachieved significantly in these subjects. ? You have redesigned the curriculum so that all pupils now study a language and either history or geography.

In addition, you have strengthened subject leadership, levels of staffing and the quality of teaching in these areas. The number of pupils who are studying the full range of EBacc subjects has more than doubled in the current Year 11 and has risen to 50% in Year 10. Inspectors' scrutiny of the school's progress information and of pupils' work indicates that they are now making better progress in EBacc subjects than in previous years.

• For at least three years, pupils at Broadoak have made less progress in mathematics than pupils across the country with similar results at the end of Year 6. Stronger subject leadership and a better match of programmes of work to examination requirements have contributed to higher levels of achievement for pupils currently in the school. Teachers now place greater emphasis on pupils mastering skills and gaining a depth of knowledge and understanding before they move on to the next topic.

• In other subjects, including English and science, results in 2018 showed that pupils' progress improved from below average to average. As a consequence of continuing improvements in teaching and subject leadership, levels of progress continue to rise across all year groups. Close tracking of pupils' progress, analysis of weaknesses and swift, targeted support have also contributed strongly to this improving picture.

• Published results in 2018 appear to indicate that boys and pupils receiving support for special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) make less progress than other pupils in the school. However, as pupil numbers are small, patterns of the progress of groups vary from year-to-year. Over time and currently, boys and pupils with SEND have not underachieved significantly in comparison with their peers.

• Disadvantaged pupils continue to outperform their non-disadvantaged peers. Staff identify very specific and individual barriers to learning from Year 6 to ensure that they use funding strategically to provide effective academic and pastoral support as these pupils move up the school. ? Pastoral staff and the school's attendance officer work well with families and external agencies to encourage pupils to attend school regularly.

Overall attendance is broadly in line with the national average. However, although improving, the attendance rate of disadvantaged pupils remains below that of their peers. ? For some years, you have excluded a higher proportion of pupils than is seen nationally.

You have used strong systems for managing behaviour as well as working with individuals and their families to reverse this trend. The level of exclusions has now decreased and is in line with national averages. Very high expectations of pupils' attitudes and behaviour are apparent in every classroom and in all areas of the school.

Pupils are courteous and respectful towards adults and each other. They wear their uniform and achievement badges with pride. ? When pupils leave Year 11, a high proportion have gained appropriate places in education, employment or training.

However, historically, a higher proportion than seen nationally have left these placements or employment within 6 months. In response, you have changed the way that you organise careers education, information, advice and guidance. Your own school staff now provide guidance and do this over a longer period of time.

Considerable emphasis is placed on developing pupils' confidence and resilience. Each year for the last three years, the proportion of pupils who are not in education, employment or training has decreased and is now in line with the national average. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? they continue to improve progress, especially that of the most able, across the range of subjects which pupils study ? the attendance of disadvantaged pupils continues to improve and reaches at least the level of their peers.

I am copying this letter to the chair of the board of trustees and the chief executive officer or equivalent of the multi-academy trust, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Trafford. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Liz Kelly Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection Inspectors had discussions with you, your senior leaders and a cross section of the teaching staff.

We also had a discussion with the vice-chair of governors and the chief executive of the multi-academy trust. Jointly with you and a member of your senior leadership team, we observed teaching. We spoke to a range of pupils in lessons, in discussion groups and at social times.

We listened to pupils read and scrutinised reading records. We looked at a range of pupils' work and the information you provided on the academic performance of current pupils. We analysed the website and documentation, including the single central record, records of child protection, the school's self-evaluation and documents relating to improvement planning.

We discussed with senior leaders aspects of safeguarding, attendance, behaviour, pupils' mobility and the use of funding. We considered 55 responses to Ofsted's online survey, Parent View, including a number of free-text comments made by parents. We also considered 22 responses to Ofsted's online pupils' questionnaire and 50 responses to Ofsted's staff questionnaire.