Hamstead Hall Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

Hamstead Hall is a good school. It has many outstanding features.

The very high quality of the care, guidance and support it provides to students, particularly those at risk of becoming vulnerable, leads to a number of exceptional outcomes. According to one parent, 'Hamstead Hall is the best thing that ever happened to my son. He is doing really well, both in his sports and education.

I'm so pleased with the support he gets from the teachers.' The very large majority of students say they feel safe at all times and parents and carers strongly agree with this. Students' contribution to the local, national and international community is exceptional.

This has led to older students travel...ling to The Gambia to help design, build and support a new school for students there, and at home participating in a local young people's parliament. The extent to which students develop skills that will help them in their future lives is also outstanding. Students take responsibility for managing their own cinema business, where they are in charge of all the managerial and financial decisions.

Their spiritual moral, social and cultural development is excellent. Students display a very high degree of knowledge and respect for differences within the school. This is also reflected in the outstanding way the school promotes community cohesion.

The rigour with which the school tracks the progress of different groups and then addresses any gaps ensures that it promotes equal opportunities extremely well. Teaching is good. The very high quality of relationships and teachers' excellent subject knowledge enable teachers to group students in such a way that they can support each other.

Written planning for different groups of learners is not of a consistently high quality although teachers skilfully match up higher and lower attaining students and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities or for whom English is an additional language. This enables students to support each other and ensure that all groups make good progress. At times some students are not clear what they are expected to achieve by the end of the lesson and although verbal feedback is strong, written feedback on how they are doing and what they need to do to improve is varied in its quality.

The curriculum is outstanding. It is tailored to meet the specific needs and interests of different groups and individuals well. It caters for a wide degree of academic and vocational courses and is flexible in the way it is delivered.

Leaders and mangers are highly effective in the way they engage with parents and carers and a range of other partners. The governing body plays an outstanding role in providing support and challenge to the school's leaders. Safeguarding procedures are outstanding.

They are rigorous and robust. Students join the school at the start of Year 7 having reached standards in English, mathematics and science that are broadly average. By the time they leave at the end of Key Stage 4, the proportion who have achieved five or more good grades at GCSE including English and mathematics is higher than the national average.

All groups of students make good progress, regardless of their ability or background. Good provision through a specialised curriculum in the resource base helps to ensure that students with special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress in line with their peers. The overall effectiveness of the sixth form is good.

Hamstead Hall works closely in partnership with other providers to give students a wide range of courses suited to individual needs. Whilst success rates are good, only a small proportion go on to reach the highest possible grades in A and AS courses. The leadership of the sixth form is in a state of transition.

It is currently under review to clarify roles and responsibilities. Consequently monitoring and tracking of the progress of individuals and groups of students is insufficiently rigorous The leadership structure is under review. Overall the school has good capacity to improve further.

It has established a strong track record of ongoing improvements in attainment and in addressing previous equalities issues such as the underachievement of boys and the high rate of exclusion of Black Caribbean boys. The school's leaders are highly effective in growing expertise and leadership from within the school and rightly have a well-deserved reputation with their local partners for the quality of the school's outreach work, not least through its sports specialism and sixth form partnerships.

Information about the school

Hamstead Hall is larger than the average-sized secondary school.

It is situated on the northern outskirts of Birmingham. The proportion of students from minority ethnic backgrounds is well above the national average, as is the percentage of students who speak English as an additional language. The largest minority ethnic groups are students of Indian and Black Caribbean origin.

The percentage of students with special educational needs and/or disabilities is below the national average, but the proportion with a statement of special educational needs is above average because of the provision of a special needs resource base. The proportion of students known to be eligible for free school meals is above average. The school has specialist status in sport.

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