John Port School An Academy Trust Etwall, Derby, DE65 6LU Telephone: 01283 734111 Email: admin@johnport.derbyshire.sch.uk Website: www.johnport.derbyshire.sch.uk Statement of Action for Ofsted - September 2017 Headteacher: Mrs K Squire NPQH BSc (Hons) Chair of the Interim Academy Board: Sir Barry Day
John Port School Statement of Action September 2017 1. Due to falling examination results and failures in governance, the Secretary of State imposed an Interim Academy Board (IAB) on John Port School in late autumn 2016. 2. The IAB found significant failures in leadership and standards at the school, later confirmed by Ofsted, and, with the support of the Regional Schools Commissioner (RSC), sought to identify a successful local Multi Academy Trust (MAT) to provide support for the school and in the medium term to take over the governance and management of the school. 3. This process commenced in January 2017 and following a number of both informal and formal meetings the IAB voted unanimously that the Spencer Academies Trust (SAT) was the preferred MAT and asked that they commence their due diligence process. This process started in the summer term 2017 and has been completed. The IAB now await a formal decision from the SAT Board which the IAB are assured will be given at the start of the 2017/18 academic year. 4. SAT has a strong track record of working with its other sponsored schools (primary and secondary) to improve their Ofsted effectiveness and their outcomes. Four of the Trust's ten schools have Ofsted judged outstanding leadership (including three, which are sponsored). Leadership was judged to be good when the remaining six were last inspected. 5. Following the Ofsted report placing John Port in Special Measures and whilst awaiting the decision by the SAT Board the IAB commissioned the SAT, through an NLE contract, to provide support and challenge to John Port Academy over the next twelve months, during which period it is intended that, subject to the SAT Board decision, John Port School will join the SAT as a sponsored academy and open as a new school, no longer subject to Special Measures. 6. The NLE contract and this IAB statement of action are intended to provide immediate support to John Port and also to facilitate its transition to a sponsored academy within that timeframe, and at the earliest opportunity. The IAB requires this transition to be completed no later than 31 August 2018 and preferably by 1 April 2018. 7. Since the Ofsted Inspection, the head teacher was suspended and has subsequently left the school. As part of the NLE contract, an experienced and successful interim head teacher has been appointed on an initial twelve months contract. This new head teacher took up post in July 2017 and will lead the school from September 2017, with the support of an NLE from the SAT. 8. A new and effective safeguarding lead is in post from 1 September 2017. 9. The IAB has requested that the SAT provide a report on the structure and effectiveness of the wider senior leadership and middle management teams at its first Board meeting of the term in early October 2017. 10. The IAB, working in partnership with the SAT, will therefore ensure that performance improves significantly at an appropriate rate through targeted professional support and by monitoring, evaluating and challenging the work of the school in the areas identified in the inspection report: a. To secure robust and effective safeguarding arrangements that permeate everything the school does b. To provide strong and visible leadership at every level of the school c. To raise achievement throughout the school with a relentless focus on securing equity for all d. To provide high quality teaching in every classroom, every day, in every subject and for every group e. To secure high standards of behaviour, presentation, and attendance so that students can achieve highly
11. It should be noted that the IAB ensured that a far more rigorous assessment and monitoring protocol was in place, especially for the year 11 cohort, in the 2016/17 academic year. Although the Ofsted team could not take the predictions from this protocol into account during the inspection due to significant failures in predicting results accurately in preceding years, this has led to significant improvements in both GCSE and A level results in 2017 when compared to results in 2016. At A level: a. % A* and A; 30%, up from 24% b. % A* to B; 53%, up from 47% c. % A* to C; 80%, up from 73% d. % A* to E; 99%, up from 97% At GCSE: e. Mathematics % A* to C equivalent 74%, up from 62% f. English % A* to C equivalent 74%, up from 57% g. Combined English and mathematics % A* to C equivalent 74%, up from 52% h. % A* and A grades 19%, up from 17% i. % A* to C grades 69%, up from 63% 12. This IAB statement of action has been prepared in partnership with the acting head teacher and the SAT, so that the work of the SAT is targeted on areas where significant improvement is required and also complements the actions in the new school improvement plan that was completed in July 2017. 13. The IAB will remain in place pending arrangements for transitioning to a sponsored academy being confirmed to ensure continued strong and effective governance. IAB members have significant expertise in education, governance and finance and the IAB was praised in the Ofsted inspection report of June 2017 for having brought much-needed stability and strength to leadership. It will work with the acting head teacher and the SAT to provide strategic direction and hold leaders (and the SAT) to account for the pace, quality and sustainability of school improvement. 14. Support provided by the SAT to date includes: a. provision of an experienced full time acting head-teacher with a track record of leading schools out of Special Measures. She will lead the school for the next twelve months b. provision of an Executive Principal who is the Director of Secondary Education for the SAT and currently the Principal of George Spencer Academy, the lead SAT school that has consecutive outstanding Ofsted judgements. He has already worked with the acting head teacher to review leadership structures at John Port, to deliver against the key priorities. c. support from the SAT Academy Improvement Adviser to work alongside the acting head teacher, Executive Principal and other John Port and SAT leaders to ensure robust, accurate self-evaluation linked to planning for improvement d. the SAT Executive Principal and Academies Improvement Adviser working with the acting head teacher to write a new school improvement plan with appropriate objectives, actions, targets, milestones, timelines, lead responsibilities, monitoring and evaluations clearly identified. It is against this plan that the IAB/future governors will monitor the progress of the school. e. a review of safeguarding arrangements in the light of the Ofsted inspection findings with clear recommendations made to the acting head teacher f. sourcing an experienced deputy head teacher, who has provided associate leadership for another Trust school and who has been working as part of the George Spencer Teaching Schools Alliance (TSA) leadership team since January. It is intended that she will take up post full-time in September, for one term in the first instance, to cover the vacancy left by the appointment of the deputy head of John Port to a headship in another school, pending the appointment of a permanent deputy head teacher. She will lead on teaching and learning. 15. Working with the IAB the SAT will support school leaders to: a. increase the capacity of leaders at all levels to have a greater impact on pupil achievement and behaviour in-line with school improvement priorities. This will be monitored on a monthly basis at each IAB meeting b. undertake robust monitoring and evaluation to ensure an accurate appraisal of the school's strengths and weaknesses and a timely response. Again this will be subject to IAB monthly monitoring.
16. Further support from the SAT for the school whilst it is subject to Special Measures and remains a stand-alone academy will include: a. support and advice for school leadership in providing clear direction for the work of the school b. regular reviews of school performance including joint scrutiny of teaching and learning with a particular focus on the achievement of boys, the more able and disadvantaged pupils to identify strengths/weaknesses in provision and professional development needs c. support for senior and middle leaders to develop the effectiveness of their role in improving learning and rates of pupil progress for all groups of pupils, especially the disadvantaged, and effectively managing pupil behaviour d. regular review meetings between the school s leadership, including the acting head teacher, SAT executive leaders and IAB representatives to monitor progress towards the priorities in the school action plan and its impact on raising standards e. reporting to the IAB through attendance at meetings as appropriate. 17. The SAT will coordinate support for the school and broker this from across the SAT and its associated TSA, to equip teachers and other staff with the necessary skills and strategies to deliver improvement. John Port will contribute a top slice of its budget to fund support for the school from the SAT of the kind received by other SAT academies. In the case of John Port, this support will be intensive: the academy will be a priority for support from the SAT executive leadership team, its secondary school improvement capacity (EBacc subjects) and its central services team. In the 2017-18 academic year, SAT support will include access to: a. continued and regular leadership support from the SAT CEO, Executive Principal and Academies Improvement Adviser, who are part of the SAT Executive Leadership Team. The focus of this support will be on effective delivery of the revised school improvement plan, working alongside leaders at John Port to develop, promote and monitor the impact of leadership activity. b. secondment of a pupil premium champion from George Spencer Academy for 1 day a week to develop provision for disadvantaged pupils c. Trust specialist leaders in English, Mathematics, Science and Humanities who will coach, mentor and develop their opposite numbers at John Port d. strong practitioners in other key areas such as SEN e. George Spencer TSA programmes, networks and good practice schools (George Spencer TSA is also a licence holder for all the NPQ programmes) f. the George Spencer SCITT and Maths Hub programme g. support for transition from an IAB to local governance arrangements, under the auspices of Trust governance, at the appropriate juncture h. support from the Trust s central services team around HR, premises and ICT related matters where these represent a barrier to rapid improvement. 18. The SAT has the capacity to respond flexibly as needs emerge as it has access to a range of good practice through its Trust central teams and the wider TSA/Maths Hub that is led by George Spencer Academy. 19. In relation to safeguarding, the IAB is aware that the issues highlighted by the Ofsted inspection must be addressed as a matter of urgency, irrespective of any intention to join the SAT as a sponsored academy. Steps taken so far by the IAB, in conjunction with the acting head teacher, are as follows: a. the leadership of Safeguarding has been changed with an assistant head teacher who leads on pastoral matters taking over as the Senior Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) and the appointment of a further non-teaching DSL to complement the existing team and to develop academy wide provision b. the new school improvement plan places safeguarding as the first priority - 'To secure robust and effective safeguarding arrangements that permeate everything the school does' c. the school is purchasing CPOMS which is the market leading software application for monitoring child protection, safeguarding and a whole range of pastoral and welfare issues. This is intended to improve the school's recording of safeguarding and child protection issues and improve the monitoring of responses. This system will be consistent with that used with the SAT and thus provide access to a wider, local support network d. the SAT has made recommendations to the acting head teacher in terms of further action that can be taken to ensure a safeguarding culture pervades the school
e. the Single Central Record (SCR) is now compliant, and will be subject to termly checking by the SAT HR team to ensure this standard is maintained f. the appointment to a TLR post for PSHE with a brief to develop the connectedness of the PSHE curriculum, in the light of Ofsted findings - this will include a focus on personal safety g. the SAT will provide access for the John Port DSLs to other experienced and effective DSLs within the wider SAT schools, as required h. The IAB will carefully monitor the school's safeguarding arrangements The IAB has a member whose responsibility is safeguarding. This IAB member will liaise with the acting head teacher, DSLs and the SATs HR team to ensure that arrangements for safeguarding are robust and fit for purpose and that any training needs, especially for the wider school staff, are identified and met. There will be a separate report on safeguarding on every monthly IAB agenda. The acting head-teacher will report to the first IAB meeting in the autumn term 2017 about what has been done to ensure the whole staff understand their statutory responsibilities and that all staff have undertaken the required safeguarding training. 20. Success criteria for the next 12 months are detailed at the end of this document and come from the new school improvement plan completed by the acting head teacher with support from the SAT. 21. Keeping Parents and Carers informed. The IAB will work in partnership with the acting head teacher and the SAT to keep parents and carers informed about what is happening in the school, the contents of the Statement of Action (once approved by Ofsted) and how consultation will be effectively managed. The Chairman of the IAB has already written to parents on two occasions regarding the suspension of the head-teacher and, subsequently his leaving the school. The Chairman has also informed parents of the actions the IAB has taken in terms of John Port joining the SAT. Once the Statement of Action is approved, the Chairman will write to parents with a full copy of the Statement and to explain its purpose. Consultation will then take place in two forms. An electronic/paper consultation where parents and carers will be asked to make written comments and, before the end of the Autumn term 2017, when these comments are collated, a parental meeting when the IAB can feed-back the outcomes from the written consultation, present any updates to the Statement of Action resulting from the consultation and give parents and carers the opportunity to comment in person to the IAB, senior leadership and the SAT. The acting head teacher will also write to parents regularly to keep them updated on day-to-day issues in the school. 22. Additional resources: The John Port IAB has entered into an NLE contract with the SAT pending the outcome of the due diligence process. This involves John Port School paying the SAT a 5% levy of its General Annual Grant (GAG) equivalent to what it would pay if it were part of the SAT. There has been a significant lack of focused spending over the past five years on creating an ICT infrastructure that supports leaning and on maintaining the school buildings so that they are positive learning spaces. The IAB commissioned a detailed condition survey of the school site in early 2017, which has identified what needs to be done and has prioritised these improvements. The IAB expects that these necessary improvements will be identified as part of the new SIP and actioned accordingly. Monitoring progress towards achieving all targets within the plan will be part of each monthly meeting of the IAB. The John Port School Interim Academy Board. 4 September 2017