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30 April 2014 Mrs Amanda Cawood Headteacher Wallasey School Birket Avenue Moreton Wirral Merseyside CH46 1RB Dear Mrs Cawood Serious weaknesses monitoring inspection of Wallasey School Following my visit to your school on 29 April 2014, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to confirm the outcome and findings of the inspection. Thank you for the help you gave during the inspection and for the time you made available to discuss the actions which have been taken since the school’s previous monitoring inspection. The inspection was the second monitoring inspection since the school was judged to have serious weaknesses following the section 5 inspection which took place in November 2013. The monitoring inspection report is attached. Having considered all the evidence I am of the opinion that at this time: The school is making reasonable progress towards the removal of the serious weaknesses designation. This letter and monitoring inspection report will be published on the Ofsted website. I am copying this letter to the Secretary of State, the Chair of the Governing Body and the Director of Children’s Services for Wirral. Yours sincerely
Susan Wareing Her Majesty’s Inspector
Annex The areas for improvement identified during the inspection which took place in November 2013 Improve the quality of teaching so that it is consistently good or better and so improve students’ attitudes towards their learning by: - eliminating inadequate teaching, especially in mathematics - ensuring teachers use assessment information more effectively to inform lesson planning so that the needs of all groups of students are met and that there is always an appropriate level of challenge in lessons, including for the most able students - using assessment information to set individual targets for students that are always pitched at an appropriate level and can be used to move students’ learning forward - planning more exciting lessons that interest and enthuse students - providing more opportunities for students to work collaboratively and independently of the teacher - ensuring students are always given precise guidance about how to improve their work and that marking is used as a check on students’ learning and outcomes are used to inform lesson planning - continuing to share the best practice which exists in the school Improve leadership and management by increasing subject leaders’ understanding of the way assessment information can be used to improve the quality of students’ learning and to set challenging targets for individual students.
Report on the second monitoring inspection on 29 April 2014 Evidence I met with you and with senior and middle leaders responsible for a variety of aspects of the school’s work. Meetings were also held with the Chair of the Governing Body, two other members of the governing body and a representative from the local authority who has been working closely with the school to support its improvement. Documents provided by the school and samples of students’ written work were considered. Short visits were made jointly with you and your deputy headteacher to eight lessons across Key Stages 3, 4 and the sixth form. I spoke informally to pupils during these lessons to discuss their work and gain their views on the school. The focus of the inspection was the progress made by the school in tackling the recommendations for improvement made at the section 5 inspection of November 2013. Context There have been no significant changes to staffing since the first monitoring inspection. The quality of leadership and management at the school There are signs of significant further improvement in the school since my first monitoring inspection. Staff and governors attribute this to the very clear direction and drive for improvement established through the very strong partnership between you and your deputy headteacher. Together you provide dynamic and inspirational leadership and management for the school. Your astute decision-making is informed by high quality systems and procedures that are now much more effectively used by all staff to promote the better outcomes for students that are at the heart of the school’s shared vision. Senior leaders are recognised by staff as having very high expectations of themselves and those they lead and manage. The responsibilities placed upon teachers and other staff are wisely balanced with encouragement to put forward their own ideas about improving the school. Middle leaders demonstrate great confidence in the leadership and management of the school. They particularly appreciate the clear lines of accountability, high quality training in the use of assessment information and ready support and professional development opportunities to see and share good practice. While the school acknowledges that some variation in the performance of subjects remains, senior leaders can point to reductions in such inconsistency. Governors support you and other senior leaders well, notably in finding resources, at a challenging time for the school, to implement a restructuring of senior staff that has helped the school’s work to be more efficient and effective. Governors are now much better informed about the school’s strengths and weaknesses. They have
proved themselves capable of taking responsibility for some significant aspects of the school’s work. You and the senior leaders have been resolute in your efforts to improve students’ attendance, which has now risen to just below the national average. This results from more sophisticated analysis of information, leading to swift and well-targeted actions to support and challenge those students who do not attend regularly, including those in the sixth form. The school recognises that there is more work to be done to reduce the persistent absence of a small group of students. Overall, relationships in the school are very positive and teachers manage behaviour well, at least in part because students are very clear that any behaviour that is less than good is not tolerated in the school. The school is able to demonstrate steady and sometimes more rapid improvement in students’ achievement, often from very low starting points. Robust assessment information held by the school indicates that attainment in the 2014 GCSE examinations, at the five A* to C measure, including English and mathematics, is likely to be broadly in line with the 2013 national average. Expected progress in English is predicted to be just below it. However, the impact of the school’s determination to raise students’ achievement is best seen in the rate of expected progress in mathematics, which is projected to rise well above the 2013 national average in the 2014 GCSE results. The school has had considerable success in improving outcomes for middle- and higher-ability students and girls. Gaps in the attainment of students known to be eligible for support through additional government funding have also narrowed or closed completely. This improvement is evident in the increased proportions of students who are predicted to exceed expected progress in the 2014 GCSE results. This is a result of the school’s innovative practice, for example, in establishing evening events where students, parents and teachers work alongside each other to set challenging targets for students’ achievement and make a joint commitment to reaching them. Projections for 2015 from the school’s very robust tracking systems indicate even stronger improvement in achievement. Achievement in the sixth form is also improving, especially at grades A* to C in Year 13. Current students perform better in vocational courses than more traditional academic routes. All these improvements reflect the school’s firm commitment to raising the standard of teaching across the school. Most teaching is now good or better and much of it provides exciting and interesting learning experiences that students enjoy greatly. The impact on teaching of high quality whole-school and individualised professional development is evident in the consistently helpful and detailed marking of students’ work by teachers across the school. This has been instrumental in raising students’ achievement. A very small proportion of teaching still requires improvement and there remains an even smaller amount of teaching that is inadequate. However, the
school has a clear and successful track record of using very effective support plans that either swiftly moves teachers’ performance to good or that leads to hard staffing decisions, through the school’s very effective performance management procedures. You, your senior leaders, including governors, and other staff are not complacent. You are well aware that your journey of improvement is not yet complete, but through what has been a challenging time for the school, you have successfully tackled all the recommendations from the November 2013 inspection. I would recommend that the next inspection be a full section 5 re-inspection. Strengths in the school’s approaches to securing improvement: The energy and inspirational leadership of senior leaders, especially the headteacher and deputy head teacher. The clarity and ambition of vision, shared by senior leaders with all staff, focused on improving outcomes for students and their community. High expectations from senior leaders, together with strong systems to support and challenge staff and students to achieve as well as they can. The honest and accurate evaluation by the school of the progress of its improvement. Weaknesses in the school’s approaches to securing improvement: There are no significant weaknesses in the school’s approaches to securing further improvement. External support The school continues to maintain an open and very positive relationship with the local authority. The impact of the local authority’s commitment to the school’s improvement is most notable in its support for the raising of standards in mathematics and in the provision of high quality training to improve middle leadership and management within the school.