Outwood Academy Shafton in Barnsley has achieved the Inclusive School Award with Flagship status.
Inclusive, High Performing Academy
Outwood Academy Shafton continues to be an inclusive, high performing Academy 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 2015 and through excellent 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.
‘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 through celebratory assemblies while their names are projected on the big screens for all to see in a roll of honour. This has gone down exceptionally well with students.
All staff are trained in positive framing and trauma aware practice. The leadership focuses on changing mindsets and creating a school where everyone ‘belongs.’ This is a tread our Assessor saw running through the Academy during their visit. New students are introduced to the ‘ACE’ arrival programme which lays out clear expectations. The ACE redeem programme supports students, identified through the behaviour strategy to make positive choices moving forward in a supportive way.
Diversity is a current focus across the Academy and it is currently working towards a Gold Award supported by the Stonewall LGBTQ+ charity over the next two years. An LGBTQ+ focus group meets weekly and will become part of the wider student voice. It is currently focussing on raising awareness and has already organised the Shafton Pride event in 2022. For whole school CPD, there is inclusion training using ‘FLICK’ covering updated topics such as Safeguarding and LGBTQ+. 
Looked After Children (LAC) is a high-profile student cohort. Praising Stars is used to focus on priority groups and celebrate their achievements alongside the whole school. When a school analysis is done, gaps are looked for in the vulnerable groups to add targeted support. The Virtual Head provides support in this area in addition to the Academy.
Learning Environment
The Academy has started its Eco-Warriors scheme which begins with the group building winter bird boxes. A lead member of staff and student representatives are attending a Student Voice Conference for the Trust. A sustainability coordinator is to be appointed with the aim of driving sustainability across the Academy, develop resources and link with opportunities across the curriculum.
During our Assessor’s tour of the Academy, they visited the sustainability garden, saw the recycling bins and felt very much that the Academy has made significant progress towards their targets. The student voice Prime Minister led her campaign under the sustainability banner and will support the new staff post. She has already introduced a popular ‘swap shop.’
Gold Pages in the planner have been introduced and are based on mindfulness, where they encourage students to take better care of their mental health.
The Academy was a new-build 8 years ago and all changing facilities and toilets are gender neutral. This has been expanded to make all PE kit gender neutral. Students our Assessor spoke with really like this adjustment, including LGBTQ+.
Learner Attitudes and Personal Development
The Academy has recently launched its first edition of ‘Personal Development News’ which highlights and shares some of the experiences and events students have taken part in during the last year and can look forward to this academic year.
These include the Academy Conduct and Expectations (ACE) Ambassador programme, life (PHSE) curriculum, PRAISE celebration events, careers guidance, open days and useful links for parents and carers. They achieved the Careers Quality Mark in 2022 and this has had an impact on helping the Academy continue to strive for positive Post-16 destinations and low NEETs. Electronic copies of the newsletter are also sent/shared with staff via social media and email.
Students have an ACE passport, where students complete a number of achievements to gain a blazer badge celebrating the achievement. Seen around the Academy, the students clearly wear this with pride.
The Executive Principal oversees the ‘behaviour’ strand and has developed the positive behaviour for learning policy across the Trust.
Suspensions are currently tracking to stay below the national average in 22/23. Three layers of placement: urgent, respite and managed placements are used effectively and in line with the new guidance.
There is a comprehensive timetable of support and intervention including: Compass (Barnsley’s CAMHS service) and Ispace (1-2-1 counselling). Adastra has a number of packages delivered onsite covering relationships, resilience, managing emotions and mental health. SEMH Specialist TAs deliver additional interventions based on identified needs.
Our Assessor met with the Learning Manager for Year 11 and discussed their mental health developments. There has been a whole school awareness campaign featuring a large event during October’s mental health week including assembly and form time activities. All students worked through a Mental Health Toolkit with signposted links for support. ‘Hello Yellow’ day was used to raise the profile. Staff mental health and wellbeing is well supported by whole staff quizzes, coffee mornings, a kindness challenge and praise emails to staff from SLT. There is a ‘Thank the TA Day” and the development of a ‘People Strategy” across the trust.
Learner Progress and Impact 
Our Assessor met with the Vice-Principal who explained the support they had given students last year towards the end of the pandemic. Google classrooms has been kept to help support current learners missing live lessons with catchup, recorded lessons and resources.
One-to-one and small group tutoring has doubled over the past year which has enabled KS3 students to be more thoroughly assessed and intervention programmes put in place. At KS4, regular assessment measures the gaps in learning and the tutors put interventions in place.
A Year 7 scheme has been introduced following the Pandemic in order to identify missing gaps in knowledge and plug them in order to accelerate learning. The Academy is also working with 3rd Space Learning (a virtual tuition company) and after Christmas additional tutoring will be put in place as an additional intervention. Ultimately, the aim is always to keep all students whenever possible in full mainstream learning.
Learning and Teaching
The Academy is very proactive with its intervention programme, gradually moving to push more early intervention into KS3, reducing the top-heavy burden at Year 11.
Our Assessor met with the Associate Assistant Principal who explained the whole school reading strategy. Literacy intervention has 3 strands, and this was demonstrated. For the read to learn strategy. “I do, we do, you do” is helping students to read confidently and fluently across the Academy. Vocabulary acquisition is improved using “the next word” where the teacher reads to the whole class and then cold calls the next word or key vocab.
Reading ages are shared with class teachers with the aim to ensure students are engaging with the reading. There is a reading intervention strand: In Year 7, KS2 data and star testing are used to develop a programme of intervention.
Students under a reading age of 9 have specialist screening to look if phonics intervention is needed. The phonics intervention, run by 2 specialist TAs since September is put in daily as required. One student, starting on module one is already able to read with increased fluency, sounding out words independently and as a result showing increased confidence across the timetable.
Separately, Word Power is part of the form programme and based around breaking down words into their components, making links and aiding comprehension. Between 9 and 11, students follow the rapid reader intervention, moving on from phonics into intervention.
This preloads vocabulary and checks comprehension through end assessments. Regular meetings and tracking through the RAG ensure the entire team is working on a coherent and connected plan.
The Academy introduced ‘Bookworms’ a competitive book reading challenge and the library hosts specific events such as World Book Day.
Christmas ‘Wrapped up in Reading’ has just been launched on social media. All families are invited to a reading event where a member of staff reads to the group, sharing a love of reading as a family. Each family receives a gift of the book to finish, showing families how they can employ Academy reading strategies at home. Student reading mentors are also on hand to read ‘A Night before Christmas’ to younger family members.
The Trust has chosen the novels and books to be read/included in the KS3 curriculum to ensure and check for diversity. An ambitious reading list is being promoted to target high achieving students and promote aspirational material. A group of 18 students have been trained as reading mentors, supporting the form time reading programme.
Parents, Carers and Guardians
Pre-Covid, the Academy was in a really good place with school/community links which had been developed following the Academisation and the years of challenge before.
A recent feature introduced since the Pandemic, to rebuild these links are ‘Nibble and Natter’ evenings, which encourage parents to attend and discuss issues with Academy Leaders, inviting parent voice.
Governance
The Academy Council is shared with Carlton School and governors link to the ‘Deeps.’ Challenge is robust at Council meetings and feeds into the Academy Development Plans. The Deeps Teams implement actions, meeting weekly. The Executive Principal role provides another level of leadership and consistence. Outwood Subject Directors operate across the Academies, supporting Academic standards and ensuring student outcomes.
School and Community
The Academy has strong links with the community and has held a number of charitable events including a Macmillan Coffee Morning raising over £200 and even created its own delivery service for people unable to attend the event. The Academy is currently busy collecting items for the Christmas Hampers, working with Age UK to distribute in the community. Events and updates are celebrated via Twitter.
During Christmas lunch, the student brass band play (5 students are currently representing the Grimethorpe Youth Colliery and Barnsley Met Band). This is supported by a conductor paid for by the Academy. Christmas tree presents are donated by staff, students and the community to Hallam FM’s Mission Christmas, Cash for Kids Project. Showcasing the Academy’s inclusivity, an autistic Year 11 student is one of the star players in the band and was nominated for Outwood Performer of the Year, celebrated at the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield.
The Trust is conducting a national project on antisemitism, with a holocaust survivor visit. The Trust have appointed a Director and every school in the Trust has a planned visit to the Holocaust Centre. The Academy feeds into the wider Trust development plans and an end of year conference. This gives an opportunity for experiences to be shared across the wider Trust. 
There are additional transition arrangements for SEND pupils as appropriate. Teacher profiles and photos of the Academy are all used. For Year 11, exam preparation starts early in the year building resilience and familiarity with the exam settings. The SENDCo attends meetings with feeder primary staff to work with EHCP students, deploying TAs in a way that works for the students and academy. SEND referral forms are now online and accessible by all staff through Google classrooms.
Cloud-based provision map software is in place to track interventions across the Academy. It is used to filter information from staff down to a classroom teacher level and fed up to create EHCP funding requests from the LA.
The Autism Quality Mark is currently being worked on through the local authority over the next academic year.
Outwood Academy Shafton continues to be a highly inclusive school with dedicated staff who truly care for the students
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.