Ossett Academy and Sixth Form College has achieved the Inclusive School Award with Centre of Excellence status.
Inspirational Leadership
Ossett Academy is a secondary school and Sixth Form College, in Ossett, a town in the county of West Yorkshire, England.
Ossett Academy is part of Accord Multi Academy Trust, with 1542 Year 7-11 pupils and 234 6th form students on roll. For the academic year 2021-2022 22.0% are eligible for disadvantaged funding. 8.4% have SEND with 1.8% currently holding an EHCP. The Academy is well supported by the Trust, which provides effective challenge and support to the Academy.
The Principal, Governors and Senior Staff provide inspirational leadership across all aspects of the Academy. This is clearly evident as the Academy has continued to move forward from its ‘Good’ rating when it was last inspected in 2018, challenging its dedicated staff and students to reach for their full potential in every aspect of their school lives.
Behaviour of Pupils Was Exemplary
Throughout IQM’s 2-day visit, our Assessor consistently witnessed staff and students showing mutual respect for each other which created a calm, purposeful and inclusive feel within the Academy. The behaviour of pupils was exemplary during the visit. The dress code and pride with which students wear their uniform was also evident at all times.
During conversations, students explained that there was the expectation that they would achieve. The Assessor met with two students that had previously been in external alternative provision and had now successfully transitioned to Ossett Academy and were accessing mainstream lessons and GCSEs. Both felt supported, included and explained that the culture at the Academy made it hard not to flourish given the support and focus on their personal development and welfare.
At the heart of the Academy is Park House, a grade II listed building that was originally Ossett Grammar school. Over the years since 1928, extensions have been added creating the sprawling campus that exists today. The Academy has applied for DfE funding for a rebuild in order to overcome the challenges they face housing over 1750 students and staff and give the community a building that matches the aspirations of the Trust.
Despite the age of the buildings, the internal décor of the Academy is in excellent condition. It is clear that staff and students take great pride in their environment. Words of encouragement, messages of success and celebratory images of student’s achievement adorn the walls.
Quality Assurance Processes
During our visit the Assessor met with the Acting Chair of the Academy Education Committee (AEC). She explained how she was heavily involved in the quality assurance processes within the Academy and has visited the alternative provision facility “California Drive” in order to see for herself the impact it was making in supporting learners since its opening. More recently, she explained that she had met with the Vice Principal overseeing curriculum and standards to discuss and see the implementation of the newly launched ‘Character Virtues’ Day.
Unavailable to attend during the day itself, the sessions had been recorded when live using the ‘IRIS’ video system. This innovation is used effectively to share lessons and recorded input with a wide audience including students, parents and teachers for CPD via their SharePoint platform.
The Vice Principal explained how Governance at Ossett Academy provides the right level of professional support and challenge. The AEC meet regularly and are provided with exceptionally comprehensive reports covering the impact of inclusion, behaviour and attendance, sent a week before meetings, they are linked to key drivers in the Academy Development Plan.
Our Assessor met with a group of 4 parents, all of whom said that they felt parental communication was excellent. During the Pandemic, no face-to-face parent’s meetings were possible, so Microsoft Teams was used to hold virtual meetings. They discussed the relaunched parent forum meetings which comprised a mixture of online and face to face evenings in order to give the opportunity for wider attendance. Parents lead the agenda topics and they felt their voices were not only heard but they were acted upon.
One parent explained how proud her son was to represent the Academy as a Sports Leader in local primary schools during summer sports days. Another parent of a Year 7 pupil explained how this support from existing students at the Academy had eased the transition process of her son from Primary to Secondary.
Culture of Positive Praise
A real culture of positive praise was experienced during the 2 days at Ossett Academy. Our Assessor saw the use of a well embedded system where teachers sent ‘Above and Beyond’ messages home electronically via the BROMCOM app or a text message directly. Last half term, 15,000 above and beyond messages had been sent home already. There is a weekly newsletter that is shared on the website, SharePoint and via email celebrating success stories. Twitter is well used to communicate daily events and our Assessor observed this in action during their visit with the broadcast of Ossett Academy students laying a Remembrance wreath following a fantastic assembly, led by the Principal teaching Year 7 the Character Virtue of ‘Duty’.
The Assessor met with the newly appointed PHSE Lead who showed a range of exceptionally high-quality printed resources she had designed following the PHSE association curriculum and alongside another PHSE Lead teacher from Castleford. Through her detailed analysis of issues recorded on CPOMs she explained how she used the information to tailor and change the programme of study based on the needs of the students in real time.
Character Virtues are a golden thread that runs through the PHSE curriculum and include diversity, inclusivity and equality. This is an Academy where its Leaders are constantly looking for ways to improve their practice and further, share it with the other schools in their Trust.
Mindfulness Activities
For KS3 and KS4, there are weekly form journals with wellbeing activities and questions aimed to develop confidence and self-reflection. Students explained to me how they not only enjoyed the mindfulness activities but also how the introduction of these resources had allowed the Form Tutor additional time to address and support individual students during periods of independent reflection. Additional CPD has been put in place to help staff and all lessons and resources are on SharePoint. Where lessons have challenging content then there is signposting for further support for students if needed.
Our Assessor observed a phonics session within the ‘Orchard’ Area, a quiet purposeful space overseen by the SENDCo and used for additional interventions from outside agencies such as CAMHS and the Educational Psychology Service. There is a real drive to improve reading ages of students at the Academy using NGRT scores to identify a target cohort and bespoke intervention is put into place for phonics or peer reading. Additionally, this area is used as a ‘Safe Space’ for vulnerable and SEN students during break times. A homework club also operates out of this area after school to help students requiring additional support.
Alongside the Orchard, the “Hub” suite provides support for learners not able to access a full timetable of lessons in the main academy. Under the leadership of the Inclusion Manager, students are supported with strategies to build resilience and ultimately reintegrate into lessons.
‘California Drive’
“California Drive” is Ossett Academy’s own alternative provision, staffed by highly trained teachers and support staff. Based a few miles from the campus, it supports students in KS3 and 4 from the two secondary Academies in the trust. KS2 students are supported via an outreach model. Although a recently commissioned provision, there are already a number of success stories with students successfully reintegrating back into mainstream provision or completing their programmes of study and securing positive destinations.
New referrals are closely monitored through an Inclusion Driver Group, led by the VP ensuring that places are assigned to the students with the greatest need. Each student accessing California Drive has a bespoke package to meet their individual needs. Additional support is provided from the Ed Psych, SENDCO and EHCP assessments are secured as needed.
The Academy has employed a “Think for the Future” (TFTF) Mentor to support students two days per week, both within the Academy and at California Drive to work on social skills support tailored to the cohort of students assigned to him. I met with a number of students supported by this programme and all spoke eloquently about the changes that the support had made in their ability to access education in a more positive way.
During the focus groups, students spoke very highly of their Academy. They were gushing about the positive message sent home electronically to their parents and explained how proud their parents were of their achievements. They felt listened to and explained how their feedback through student voice forum had been acted upon in areas that really mattered to them.
One of the biggest and most dramatic inclusive changes the Academy has made is to listen to the students and parents following their last Ofsted inspection regarding congestion at the start and end of the day. In order to address this issue, the school day has been adapted to incorporate staggered start and finish times, a one-way system implemented and the driveway has been widened
Natasha’s Law
The Academy has adopted Natasha’s Law, labelling every pre-prepared meal with full allergen ingredients and have gone the extra mile. Students with food intolerances can pre-order their meal during the morning break with the knowledge that it will be prepared for them, reducing their anxiety around food safety.
An expanded Attendance Team is taking a strong stance on improving an already high level of attendance. Daily ‘door knocking,’ minibus and EWO support have taken attendance levels back to almost pre-Covid levels. The Pupil Year Leaders receive daily attendance reports highlighting absent students along with the individual reasons in order to take the level of support or challenge higher.
Additionally, the Academy has gained the Wakefield Health & Wellbeing Charter Mark and The Safeguarding Alliance Safeguarding Leadership Awards which reflect the Academy’s commitment to the safeguarding, health and wellbeing of pupils and staff.
Find out more about the IQM Inclusive School Award
If your school is interested in obtaining the IQM Inclusive School Award or you wish to talk to a member of the IQM team please telephone:
028 7127 7857 (9.00 am to 5.00 pm) or email: [email protected] for further details.
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