Parents Q and A September 20 th 2016
Are my children safe? Are my children happy? Are they challenged?
Slide of some students
What we believe in? the value of developing the whole person and place great emphasis on Stanley students being mature, respectful, well-mannered young people who have the requisite skills to work effectively with others
Results 2016 54 % of students achieved 5 A*-C grades including English and Maths Best ever value added score in the schools history Positive Progress 8 score the DFE key indicator that tells you whether a school is adding value to students education Exceptional Attainment and Progress in English
So what will happen in 2017? We are predicting the best ever results in terms of attainment and progress in 2017 Why are we so confident? Our predictions have been accurate the previous two years Our current year 11 students attained 74% A* - C grades in their Core Science exams this summer both the progress and attainment achieved by this year group outstrips national averages and acts as an accurate weathervane for future performance
Ofsted Inspection Some Facts The school has been placed in special measures because of three RI inspections Facts Of the 97 inspections of secondary schools inspected between Mid May and July 2016 Stanley High was ranked 24 th /97 for the 5A*- C passes including English & Maths Stanley High was ranked 38 th /97 for expected progress in English Stanley High was ranked 44 th /97 for expected progress in Maths
Key Actions taken post - Inspection Remodelled Closing the gap team to improve the progress and attendance of disadvantaged students. Targeted Literacy and Numeracy interventions are up and running we have adopted a different model with the Gold group to facilitate the best start we can for our vulnerable Year 7 students. Relevant training now takes place once a month for in class support workers and support staff will use 4 matrix data package to track their specific cohorts and highlight areas for possible intervention. Action plan produced within two days of the inspection to address key areas Partnership work with a local secondary school to look at novel strategies to improve the performance of disadvantaged students
A commitment to listen and respond to students and parents Half - Termly Headteacher Q and A for parents and carers to discuss school life An active student voice at the school that includes subject champions, student council and junior leadership team Weekly Bulletins for Parents & Carers Groupcall System to inform students
Working in partnership We will be joining a local Multi Academy Trust led by a local Secondary School that has a long standing reputation for academic excellence They are delighted with the results Stanley have achieved and very optimistic about the future of the school There is an excellent established working relationship that already exists between the two schools They will help us improve further and address some key areas for development
Next Steps for Stanley High School A process of due diligence will now take place this means all parties involved must follow DFE guidelines The school is therefore likely to become an Academy early in 2017 We will be working with proposed sponsor school in the interim so we can address key areas for development
Summary of the parents and carers meeting on 20 th September Mr Fitzpatrick, Headteacher. We have worked with the DfE, LA and sponsor school to get the right outcome for Stanley. This will let us build on our journey so far, and accelerate our rate of improvement. The school has recorded rapidly improving student outcomes over the previous two academic years 2014-15 and 2015-16. We are delighted that our 2016 leavers recorded a positive valued added score for the first time in the school s history, this is concrete evidence that the school is adding value to its learners over a five year period. Our current year 11 students have already achieved exceptional results in their Core Science GCSE which outstrips the national averages for both attainment and progress in Science. Our sponsor school have analysed our data and are confident that the results recorded in 2017 will be the best ever in terms of attainment and progress. Ms Williams, Chair of Governors Senior leadership team and governors: the current plan is that Mr Fitzpatrick will remain in post and the governors will continue in their roles. In collaboration with the sponsoring academy, an overview of all areas of the school will be undertaken, and the conclusions from the Ofsted report will be a major input to that conversation. The senior leadership and governance will be reviewed as part of this activity, and more details of any proposed changes will be shared as they are understood. Concern about a Super-head being appointed has been mentioned. Let me reassure you that the head of our sponsor school is a Headteacher of a single school, and not an administrator of many. Both Mr Fitzpatrick and I have met with this Headteacher as we worked through the process and we are confident that we can all work together effectively. School arrangements Question: When will a decision be made as to whether the Leadership team is fit for purpose? We are already working with the sponsor school and a decision about the senior leadership of the school will be made this term. Although Governors are to remain unchanged at present, they too will be scrutinised with the sponsor school to ensure they are fit for purpose. Question: Why was the school inspected by Ofsted in June, but the report not released until September? Whilst the inspection took place on 14 and 15 th June, the final report was not received in school until 5 th September and distributed to parents on 9 th September in line with Ofsted guidelines. The school is unable to disclose the outcome of an inspection until the final report is received into school. The report was not received in the summer term, as reports for schools who are being placed into special measures take longer to publish as Ofsted must ensure quality assurance. Question: Why has the sponsor school not been publically announced? The school appreciates that parents are frustrated, especially due to rumours circulating in the public domain. However we are bound by the guidelines imposed by the DfE restricting the information which can be disclosed until the due diligence process is complete. Failure to do so may
jeopardise the process and outcomes. Parents were assured that they would be informed of the sponsor school as soon as we are able, although we are unable to give a timeline at present. Question: Could you highlight the main changes which occur when a school converts to an Academy? We will join a Multi Academy Trust (MAT) where we could remain or in time move to another MAT should the need arise. However, it is expected that conversion to an academy will not take place until early in the New Year. Initially it will appear that it is business as usual for our students and teachers. There will be changes to the finance and administration aspects of running the school and could be changes to the leadership and governors of the school. At this early stage we are working with the sponsor school, looking at all aspects of business, prior to a plan being formulated. We are looking forward to sharing resources and initiatives with the sponsor school which should help us make better and more rapid progress. Question: When will the next OFSTED inspection be? The current DfE guidelines state that on conversion to an academy, an OFSTED inspection will not be scheduled for three years. Whilst the MAT could request an inspection within this timescale, it is the responsibility of the sponsor school to ensure that progress is monitored. Question: Will the school move to mixed ability sets? There is already some mixed ability teaching at Stanley. The sponsor school will have plans to improve results at Stanley, and those plans will be shared with parents and carers as they solidify. Question: How will you ensure that the most able children are challenged and make good progress? Stanley High school has a current AGT (Able, Gifted and Talented) policy which is modelled upon a local school s strategy. The sponsor school has a good record with more able pupils, so we are expecting to learn from them and increase the percentage of students who achieve A*- A grades. Question: How are you going to improve the performance of SEN/PP students? The school is working with the sponsor school to improve outcomes in this area as they have a very good track record in securing good attainment and outcomes with disadvantaged groups. Regardless of ability, we expect all students to achieve well. This is why we place so much importance in students having a positive attitude to learning, and we reinforce this through our reporting system and during school assemblies. We are believe that every child has talent regardless of what set they are in; that does not mean all students should attain the same outcomes; it does mean that all students should make good progress based upon prior attainment indicators. Question: Can there be a homework timetable made available, clearly showing when homework will be given in each subject? Please see the school website. We have issued information about homework timetables in the past, however this has been enhanced in the light of parental feedback. Please note that for some subjects, such as maths, more homework may be given than is on the timetable, however the timetable is a good general guide. Please let us know if the timetable helps, or of further improvements we could make.
Question: What will you do to ensure there is more continuity of teachers and fewer substitutions? Stanley High school has an absence level that is below average compared to other Sefton schools, and the level of supply teaching is not abnormal. Nonetheless, we will be exploring options with our sponsor school to work together and more effectively cover for staff absences. It is a problem for all schools to cover long term absences such as maternity and prolonged sickness leave. Question: Why are teachers taken from KS3 student classes to support Year 11 students? We have traditionally provided intensive intervention to our Year 11 s as we get closer to the summer exams, particularly this year with a weaker cohort. We have however listened to feedback from both students and parents on this practice and intend in the future to put as much focus on intervention in the lower years. We will continue to offer specific intervention to Year 11 s to include Saturday morning revision sessions and an additional lesson (P6) at the end of the day. Question: How are you going to recruit more staff to cover the various vacancies that you have? The school has no vacancies at this time. Question: How are you going to ensure that you retain your high quality staff? We have reassured all staff that our sponsor is an excellent school, and that the academisation process will increase opportunities for career development. We are sure that our sponsor school will also take action to retain staff. Staff in school are very positive and energised about the future. They are proud of the achievements of our students both in recent exams and throughout the school. Question: How are you going to address the on-going behaviour issues that were raised in the report, to ensure that minimal disruption is caused during lessons? The school has a zero tolerance approach with students who engage in serious misconduct such as physical or verbal abuse of staff or students, racist, sexist or homophobic behaviour and such behaviour will result in exclusion. These behaviours are relatively infrequent. Students, or groups of students, who engage in low level disruption are dealt with by leadership and other staff in lessons whenever possible. The school also has the usual array of sanctions it employs through its behaviour policy. I am sure the sponsor school will have some new ideas to reduce the incidence of low level disruption. During feedback to the leadership team, the Ofsted lead inspector stated that the judgement for the behaviour section would have been good if attendance was at or above national average. Attendance at Stanley High was 0.9% below the national average last year, and a contributing factor was parents taking students out of school for holidays. We would ask for parental support with this issue. I invite any of you to come to the school during the day and have a tour. Come and look at behaviour for yourself. Please call the school office if you want to arrange a tour. Question: The options available to children force them to study subjects that they don t want to. What can be done about this? We acknowledge that the curriculum required work to improve it, and this has been done. The Ofsted report mentioned this improvement: The curriculum has recently been reviewed and is now providing a greater balance and breadth. Leaders have designed the curriculum to respond to the new changes that are happening nationally and have kept the needs of pupils in mind. The extra-curricular
activities provided are wide and varied. Pupils are able to take part in artistic, creative, dramatic, musical, scientific, sporting and technological activities throughout the week. The pupils value these opportunities and they can see themselves how these opportunities develop their character and skills. If your child finds the options available unworkable for their aspirations, please ensure that this is raised with their year leader so that a solution can be explored. Parental Engagement Question: What strategies do you intend to implement in order to improve parental communication and support? A teacher, Michelle Perkins, has volunteered to lead a program to improve parental communication working across the school and including governors. This improved engagement will include more extensive use of social media and there will be a weekly bulletin from the 16 th of September. We are sure the sponsor school will have their own ideas to develop this aspect of the school s work. Question: What can we do if parent s evenings are impacted by teacher absence? Sometimes a teacher cannot be present because they are ill. Some teachers also have their own children to attend to, and therefore cannot stay beyond the official finish time. If a member of staff has left before your appointment, then we encourage parents and carers to raise this with the year leader immediately. When staff aren t present at a parents evening many teachers make arrangements to discuss student s progress in a meeting or by telephone or email. Teaching quality and teacher performance Question: Please will you explain your monitoring and evaluation schedule? Is this schedule shared with all teaching staff? Monitoring and evaluation of teaching is carried out continuously. We also have termly student voice interviews, a teaching and learning team who support and challenge staff and learning walks by leadership staff. There are also regular core-subject accountability meetings attending by departmental staff and a nominated governor to hold staff to account. This covers maths, English and science. The school also works closely with a local secondary school to help improve teaching and learning in Maths. The quality assurance schedule is shared with all staff, and feedback about these processes is fed back through training meetings and staff meetings. The Head also issues staff and the chair of governors with a briefing each Sunday which highlights areas of strength and of concern in relation to discrete aspects of teaching and learning. It is also worth noting that school s predictions for performance for some key indicators for year 11 leavers in 2016 were accurate, indicating that self-evaluation is broadly correct and is a useful tool in assessing in-year progress. We expect that our quality assurance work will be enhanced by the sponsor school. Question: What percentage of lesson observations are unannounced observations? We use lesson observations to improve standards and as part of our quality assurance program. The QA program includes a variety of activities to ensure that standards are high. We issue a QA calendar which is shared with all staff.
We operate the same policy as Ofsted we inform staff that there is a two-day window when they will be observed; staff are not informed which lessons will observed. Lesson observation lasts for a full hour (Ofsted stay for only 30 minutes). Learning Walks are shorter observations lasting typically between 15-20 minutes, and are also unannounced. Question: What is the difference between lesson observations and learning walks? A lesson observation is focussed on the teacher and relates to how effective the learning experience is for the students. Aspects observed include presentation, questioning, behaviour and learning. Lesson observations are part of performance management for teachers. Learning walks are exploring specific aspects of learning, and focus on the students. Most often there will be a specific topic that is being explored such as English, and standard of reading. Question: Do teaching staff participate in peer coaching and mentoring? Yes, coaching and mentoring are part of the school s CPD (continual professional development) strategy. For example: we have a teaching and learning team that coach and mentor teaching staff who need to improve specific areas of pedagogy such as questioning technique. Coaching and Mentoring are key aspects of the Early Warning Protocol the school uses to tackle underperformance with individual members of staff. The Early Warning Protocol is an effective mechanism, and has been used in the last year to promptly address underperformance.