Full Self Evaluation Document
Hope Kindness Courage Integrity Trust Respect Responsibility
Academy ContextThe Ilfracombe Academy is an 11-18 school located on the North Devon Coast overlooking the Bristol Channel. The school became an academy with the Diocese of Exeter’s St Christopher’s Trust in May 2013. The school is average in terms of size for a secondary and slightly above the national average in terms of students eligible for FSM.We are a specialist Arts School (formerly a specialist Media Arts College). The town and the area rely predominantly on tourism and agriculture for their income, the school being one of the largest employers in the area.
The school occupies a beautiful site with spectacular coastal views; this also brings challenges as the site is extremely exposed. The school is in the first wave of the EFA Priority School Building Programme as much of the accommodation is of an unacceptable standard both in terms of condition, adjacencies and in some cases suitability. The school was formerly in the BSF programme. We are at the design and tender stage of the process. Since the school became an academy we have secured ACMF emergency funding to deal with fire doors and student toilets. A major refurbishment is therefore an extremely exciting time for the school. Resources to date have been extremely limited with Devon being 146/152 Local Authorities in terms of per pupil funding, therefore the government uplift for this county for 2015/16 is also welcome.
Standards have risen substantially in the last 2 years, and there is no sense of complacency. Self- evaluation isrigorous and strategic planning and leadership strong, confirmed by a DfE visit October 2012, and there have been further significant leadership changes since that date, including at senior level for Behaviour and Attendance (Jan 13). The DfE allowed us to follow a request made to convert to an Academy with Diocesan support. We regarded this as an extremely significant, positive step for the school. We are working with EdisonLearning as a partner on accelerating progress in a drive to be Outstanding. The DfE regarded the school as being at “tipping point” in 2012in terms of standards and that the academy conversion would provide us with leverage and resources. Outcomes 2013 confirmed this view with our best results to date at GCSE: 60% 5EM compared to 48% with similar ability cohort 2011; supported by results 2014:52% 5EM (55% on 2013 measures) compared to 35% with a similar cohort in 2012. AS and A2 results are good with strong VA in both year groups. 2013 results: AS 86% (2012 67%) and A2 99% and 2014 AS 83% and A2 99.5% with a 7% rise in top grades A*-B to 42%. Our drive for high standards and academic excellence, and a sense of urgency, is underpinned by an ethosdriven by Christian values. These values inform our policies, procedures, behaviours and actions, with everyone associated with our school taking responsibility for modelling and exemplifying them. Our Deputy Head Teacher Student Outcomes has a specific dimension to the role which monitors the progress of disadvantaged students. This has been extremely successful with minimal gap in attainment and LoP in English(above nat av) no attainment gap in Maths (nat av) and a much reduced gap for LoP of disadvantaged students in Maths (above nat av for E6, see below).Our equality targets are focused on girls attendance, boys attainment and disadvantaged students.
We are committed to excellent safeguarding and mindful of our County context and April 2014 guidance. We are also committed to ensuring our students know how to keep safe and to lead active and healthy lifestyles, being aware of and enjoying their surroundings. We have a wide and varied range of enrichment activities recognising that our rural location and some elements of rural deprivation may limit our students’ horizons. Participation is high and students benefit from a wide range of opportunities. Students say they value the good relationships at the Academy and feel safe. Parents’ views as evidenced through the Parent’s Survey (June 2014) support these views and in addition parents say that their children are happy at school and that they learn well.
Some aspects of our context present particular challenges to raising aspirations for example:
1. The town has a very high incidence of mental health problems
2. Has the second highest rate of unemployment of any Devon town.
3. Has the second highest rate of residents with no qualifications
4. Over representation of youth offending rates compared to the Devon average
5. Ilfracombe Central Ward is one of the most deprived wards in Devon, and in the top 200 in the country.
6.Life expectancy is 11 years lower than the County average.
We value the partnership of other agencies such as Health, the Town Council, One Ilfracombe, Early Help Board in tackling these issues. Inter- agency working is very strong at a local level. Again the Academy process has provided additional leverage generating interest, buy-in and pride locally. As the youth service has pulled out of the town the Diocese has committed resourcesand we appointed a school based youth worker who took up post September 2014.
We have anLSU funded from our own budget, coordinate a Multi-Agency Support Team, and have a Hub which supports our most challenging students. The school plays a leading role in the Troubled Families Project in the area. We work in partnership with several universities including Exeter and Plymouth, Oxford and Cambridge, and many others for summer schools.
We are also part of the North Devon Teaching Schools Alliance and have been involved in the Coastal Challenge work with NCTL. Four of our leadership have been designated as SLE and we are committed to sustainable improvement.All stakeholders have been involved in work on rebranding and ethos. Links with the Diocese have opened up opportunities beyond our region which was part of our rationale for suggesting this route to the DfE. A governors School Improvement Monitoring Group (SIMG) meets after each data drop to monitor progress and hold leaders to account. The governing body has made considerable progress in the last two years in terms of the structure, skills base, knowledge and understanding of its strategic role and in governor’s commitment and ability to hold school leaders to account (External Review of Governance and Action Plan Dec 2014).
We are school working in challenging circumstances regarding our isolation and rural deprivation, and Devon’s inequitable funding compared to the rest of the country, but we are school which is self-aware, open and honest, and have a “no excuse, no stone unturned” culture.
- The Quality of Leadership and Management of the School Grade: 2 Good
We have judged leadership to be good as the governors and all leaders provide the school with a clear vision, strategic direction and a very good capacity to improve further. There are aspects of outstanding as new initiatives become embedded; outcomes are not yet outstanding
EVIDENCE WHICH SUPPORT THIS JUDGMENT:
Aspect / Evaluation / Evidence Base / PersonThe extent to which leadership at all levels demonstrates, high ambition for the school and high expectations for and of everyone, including recognising the importance of academic excellence / The governing body have a clear vision for the school, understand their strategic role relating to school improvement and hold senior leaders to account through regular meetings and the Portfolio Holder meetings and are committed to raising standards. (External Review of Governance Dec 2014) There are recently appointed new Heads of Department in Art, Science and MFL, as well as many recent pastoral appointments. English has been under new leadership for three years with obvious impact. The Head of Maths has effective informal support in place leading to positive data for students currently on role. The Sixth Form is also under new leadership again with measurable impact, particularly on the achievement of the most able. All leaders understand the need to be ambitious for our students, and have high expectations of everyone regardless of background or ability.The impact of good leadership on disadvantaged studentshas been clear as has the impact on standards in general. (See below Achievement)
HT meets weekly with all members of SLT to ensure a consistent focus on standards, and regular line management meetings between SLT and ML explore any aspects of underachievement as highlighted by Progress Points. The format for these meetings is consistent across the school. Progress review meetings are calendared for the whole year for SLT, ML and Departments, and tutors and students, as are corresponding Governor and Directors Meetings (see calendar). The HT meets fortnightly with the Chair and Vice chair of governors
We are developing leadership capacity further with Edison Learning in a drive for outstanding leadership. Leaders of all level are encouraged to develop professionally eg 4 have been designated as SLE. We are committed to sustainable leadership development. There is an action plan for governors moving towards outstanding governance and in terms of succession planning we run a secondment programme for ML to the SLT as well as in house leadership development for aspiring leaders.
Expectations of staff are high and made clear on a regular basis.The new Teachers’ Standards are clearly exemplified and linked to robust appraisal and PRP. Governors employ the services of a SIP to Appraise the Head Teacher. We have found it necessary to act robustly (not waiting for appraisal which takes a year!) in several cases, with a demonstrable impact on standards. Staff morale is good and staff are proud to be part of the school and understand what we are committed to achieving (Survey Sept 2014). Staff are ready to tackle challenges. Having dealt with some extremely serious staffing matters including a successfully defended ET SLT/Governors continue to challenge and support where teaching or leadership requires it, in a well evidenced way. This has led to some staff who have been challenged on not marking their books for example deciding to leave in Summers 2012, 2013 and 2014, or middle leaders to retire or step back from their posts.Staff who have decided to stay and have been on informal support (again not waiting for appraisal), for example 2 DT teachers last year, made rapid progress and exceeded GCSE targets. / Staff, student and parent voice
External Review of governance
Local Authority and OFSTED judgement
Minutes of governors meetings
Staff Records
Student voice
Edison Review of Effective Leadership Oct 2014 / HT/PG
The extent to which leadership has an impact on improving the standard of teaching and learning and behaviour / There has been a consistent focus on teaching and learning through clearly focused improvement planning, based on honest evaluation. There is a focus on student progress (rather than teaching style) in all lessons with impact in results and data of those on role.The Academy process provided leverage, resources and the opportunity to re-examine this and we are working with EdisonLearning in our drive for outstanding. This good practice is particularly evident in those departments where results are good or are improving substantially for example in English, History, PCRE, MFL, aspects of DT and aspects of science, and progress/attainment data for students currently on role in Maths which is strong. The new pastoral structure with new strong Heads of Year has increased capacity to deal with behaviour issues proactively as well as supporting academic mentoring. A new AHT Pastoral joined the school in January 2013, having an immediate impact on systems and staff confidence, along with HoD in MfL and Science, both of whom have had an immediate impact on student engagement and consistency. The spike in exclusions 2014 is attributable to a group of Year 11 students for whom detailed studies are available. Exclusions have dropped dramatically in the current year. Staff new to the school say systems are clear and easy to follow. / Lesson observation
Outcomes data
Exclusion
Student and parent voice / Rr
HT
The extent to which the school provides a broad and balanced curriculum that meets the needs of all students, allows them to reach their potential and promotes good behaviour, spiritual moral and cultural development / The curriculum is broad and balanced and responsive to the profile of individual cohorts (update Jan 2015).There have been additions to the Sixth Form options and to Key Stage 4. Coursing has been in line with recommendations on E BAcc and findings of Wolfe. Students are coursed carefully through interview onto 5 different pathways, using data as well as their aspirations in Year 9. There are a range of vocational and “engagement” options. The post 16 offer in the main level 3 however it is proving both attractive and successful particularly for the more able. We have tried unsuccessfully to recruit for a computing teacher, or computing as a second subject and this is being delivered by several subjects. We also ran a GCSE pilot for computing with a non-specialist leading with mixed results. We remain determined to explore all possibilities.
Internal data shows that the average Attitude to Learning Score for each Year group as judged by staff is 4 (Good) as does the staff survey. Students value the good relationships they have with each other and staff. Students in the lower school value the current rewards system of stamps linked to house points however they would also like to see a more wide spread use of stickers and post cards. Some like the more individual rewards of sweets! Students in Year 10 and 11 would like to see a review of the stamp system as they feel that it is possibly a little too “young” for them. This review is part of the new Academy Improvement Plan and the new House System launched October 2014.
Spiritual, moral and cultural development is an extremely positive feature of the school. This can be attributed to the good teaching and relationships within the PCRE department and also an assembly, tutorial and enrichment programme that promotes the development of responsibility, reflection and emotional literacy. We place great value on how all members of our school community treat each other. We encourage students to take responsibility for themselves as well as looking after others. There are many opportunities for volunteering which students engage in. We know that vulnerable students find it more challenging to engage voluntarily in enrichment and therefore ensure a very varied universal provision. We work as closely as we can with partners in the community such as Community Action, Young Citizens and the local clergy to foster a sense of service and “giving back” on the part of the children. We already work with School Pastors on site and on routes home, and have jointly appointed a Youth Worker with the churches, to compensate for the Youth Service pulling out of the town.
We seek opportunities to extend children’s appreciation of cultural diversity and took a full part in the cultural Olympiad and, for example, have hosted a visit from a Swazi Christian School Choir and are sponsoring 3 Swazi orphans who Year 9 will be visiting this year. There is a full list of all activities and visits which cover an extremely wide range of experiences.
Our values are clear and are reinforced through all our policies and practice. / Curriculum statement
Curriculum Planning
Evaluation of courses
Student voice
Schemes of work for tutorials and for PCRE
Evidence of enrichment activities including participation rates of different groups / Tu
Hi
The exent to which there is rigorous implementation of focused improvement plans, based on accurate self evaluation / The DfE judged that the school assessed itself accurately, and we are fully aware of our areas for development as well as our strengths. We are an open and honest school with a “no excuse” culture. We constantly ask the questions “What is the impact?” of any actions and actively invite constructive criticism and “outside eyes”. A recent Edison Review of the school (Oct14) judged the school “Proficient” (Good) and against the 5 strands of an effective school.
There is an Improvement Plan in place from Summer 2014 based on accurately evaluated needs which the 2014 results confirmed. The vast majority of middle leaders have an accurate and honest view of their areas which informs well focused planning.Governors fully understand their strategic role in school improvement including robust challenge and monitoring (External Review Dec 2014). / SEF
AIP
Departmental SEF and AIP
SIP reports
Govs Report / HT/PG
To improve the school and develop its capacity for further sustained improvement by developing leadership capacity and excellent standards amongst staff / We are focusing on developing capacity in teaching and leadership skills and within the Local Governing Body who are extremely committed in their work. Edison training 2013/14 worked to embed outcome led lessons across all areas and this is continuing as part of a two year plan, tracking impact as it progresses. We are not prescriptive about style but focused firmly on progress.