Outwood Academy Foxhills has achieved the Inclusive School Award with Flagship status.
Outwood Academy Foxhills continues to be an Inclusive, high performing school that very much lives up to its mission statement of “Students first: raising standards and transforming lives”.
The Academy became part of the Outwood Family of Schools in 2014 and, through Outstanding Leadership, has transformed itself into a welcoming and supportive Academy, with a relentless determination to provide the very best education for every child. They aim to place students at the centre of everything they do, with a focus on creating a culture of success and a positive climate for learning.
Our assessor met with a parent of two current year 7 students who had been supported through the transition programme last year. It was wonderful to see as nothing like this has happened in other schools that our assessor has experienced. The school has an open-door policy for all. The twins attended an extra transition day (due to one with anxiety and the other transgender). Due to the students having different academic abilities, they would in all likelihood be set into different academic classes. Small numbers of children were brought in after the start of the day and experienced a very nurturing day which inflated their confidence for the second transition visit. She spoke highly of the informal nibbles and natter evening which helped make for a relaxed and calm evening which helped build trust between the parents, carers and staff. She felt that this opportunity to share key information, put names to faces and reduce her own anxiety for her children was very beneficial. She felt reassured and supported. This was followed up with a further meeting just before the summer holidays to double check that everything had been in place. The relationships that the staff have made with both the parents and the students really works. It has been honed to ensure that every student flourishes and achieves their potential.
They Have The Support Needed To Flourish
Last year, transition was moved back to start with year 5 in order to effectively give more time to integrate students into the year 7 curriculum. The transition open evening is also extended to year 5 in order to develop early discoursing with parents before their selection of secondary school.
Staff from OAF visit primary schools to look at how their curriculum is taught, build relationships with students and review the work of potential students. This has led to supporting the weaker students in a more robust way to ensure that they have the support needed to flourish when they join Foxhills. A full curriculum review has been led and resulted in changes including the Foxhills curriculum to ensure prior knowledge was accounted for and students could be accelerated without unnecessary repetition but still support those needing or having gaps in their learning.
Art, Music and enrichment subject teachers have also been involved in the visits with the air of developing a love of culture and the wider curriculum with the aim of enthusing students to come to Foxhills.
The Foxhills SENCO will have involvement with EHCP of incoming year 6 students in order to ensure continuity of provision from primary to secondary. This is supported by the inclusion coordinator who visits every primary school to create a vulnerable student list in order to start planning the individual support programmes as soon as possible.
Vulnerable students have an additional transition day before joining the new year 7 for a day put in place during the summer term on sports day so that following a morning of academic activities, they can join the existing student cohort to watch and celebrate the final events with their future peers.
Post 16 transition is just as important in this school as primary and starts in year 10 with visits to the two local colleges for all students where they spend the day experiencing courses. Careers meetings start with the SEN and Vulnerable students (who often require multiple meetings) before ensuring that every student gets a careers interview. Future Colleges are invited to EHCP meetings. Throughout year 11, employer and post 16 encounters are integrated into assemblies in order to ensure all students are aware of the full local offer.
Immediate And High Impact
All this hard work was recently ratified through the award of the Quality in Careers Standard Award. This had led to a student apprenticeship week where pupils applied for and worked alongside Foxhills staff to gain an understanding of a number of roles within the academy including, science technician, site manager, receptionist etc.
The Academy has built more links with the support providers such as the Youth Justice Partnership’s Criminal Exploitation Intervention Team, a social partnership for anti-social behaviour rather than relying on a long protracted referral process through for example early help. This has led to direct bespoke pieces of work with students and families which can often be short term, immediate and high impact.
The Academy is working with a research team from ‘Ampact Ed’ to look at patterns and trends of attendance to gain a wider understanding from parents and students regarding attendance. For example, what motivates (and demotivates) them from attending school. All students completed a questionnaire which will be repeated twice more during the year to see if there are seasonal issues and adjustments that need to be made. From this it was identified that a motivator was that ‘it was expected’ and demotivators had been expanded following the pandemic where it had become more acceptable to have time off when suffering minor ailments. The Academy uses an effective carrot and stick system of letters making carers aware of lates and the effects of absence vs the benefits of attendance. Praise and rewards were brought to the fore and now include prizes for families (Christmas hampers) as well as the individual in order to get a wider buy in. Attendance has increased and PA decreased significantly during the past 12 months as a consequence of these interventions.
‘Nibbles and Natter’ events were introduced last year and in January Foxhills also offered a ‘Year 6 information sharing evening’ for parents to visit and share information with the school regarding additional information that they felt the school needed to know. This early collection of information goes above and beyond that shared by the primary school and has led to the Academy having a better understanding of the individual needs of its cohort of potential new year 7 learners.
The leadership is looking at adding additional ‘N&N’ and Information sharing events at key times during the year to build on this high-quality sharing and collecting of information.
Praise Features Strongly
Our assessor met with 3 year 11, EAL students (two from Romania and one Turkish [which she will take a GCSE in]). All students have made progress and are studying English GCSEs as well as options including Spanish, science, history, sports studies, cooking, dance and art. All three have plans to go to college for post-16 studies. When they first arrived at the school, dual lingo software and the resources on Google classroom helped bridge the gap between school interventions and support in the home with language familiarisation. One student explained that her English has improved massively since year 7. She attended the ‘bridge’ for 3 months initially and was supported virtually at home during the pandemic but when she came back to school, she found it helpful to be in lessons where she progresses from interacting more with her English peers. At first with very little English comprehension, going into lessons would have been very hard. Practice and constant submersion around English students has helped her practice the spoken words. For written language support, there is one to one support. The students are happy to support new EAL students arriving at the school. They explained that are supported by really nice staff.
Praise features strongly throughout this school. Whilst rules and consequences give students a clear and consistent message of expectations, they are balanced in equal measure with messages of celebration. Lessons frequently erupt with clapping, rewarding pupils that contribute to learning and it is clear that students are enthusiastic to gain the rewards on offer for exceptional performance. ‘Classroom Champions’ are named each lesson and the students really strive and compete to try and claim this accolade.
‘Praising Stars’ culminates each half term with an assessment report for each student. If a pupil makes the highest expected effort for each of their subjects, then they are rewarded with a special celebratory ‘double’ breaktime where SLT serve the students in the main hall with treats and drinks while their names are projected on the big screen for all to see in a roll of honour. This has gone down exceptionally well with students. Everyone our assessor spoke to was keen to gain the accolade in front of their peers.
It continues to be a highly inclusive school with dedicated staff who truly care for the students. It is clear from the review process that the leaders continue to prioritise inclusion. Their work towards the IQM targets over the past 12 months has had significant, positive impact.
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.
Want more information on the IQM Award? Click here to request your free IQM information pack.