Jubilee High School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Jubilee High School

Following my visit to the school on 2 October 2018 with Catherine Davies, Ofsted Inspector, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be good in June 2015. This school continues to be good.

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Following your very recent appointment, you have set about rapidly developing your knowledge and understanding of the school's context. Consequently, you have a firm knowledge of your school's strengths and weakness...es.

Your determination to provide the best standard of education for each pupil is clear. You are well supported in this by the executive headteacher, the chief executive officer of the Bourne Education multi-academy trust, your leadership team, your staff and the governing body. You have accurately identified areas of recent underperformance and, as a consequence, supported by the governors and the multi-academy trust, have introduced and continue to take appropriate actions to bring about improvements.

You and your staff effectively promote the school's core values and mission statement of seeking to 'appreciate and develop the talents and skills of each individual'. You set high levels of expectation to which most pupils respond well. You and your staff set positive role models for the pupils.

The learning environment is calm and well ordered, offering a range of facilities for the pupils, which they use with enthusiasm and to good effect. Pupils' behaviour is good, both in the classrooms and other areas of the school. Your staff and pupils demonstrate a high level of trust and mutual respect.

Relationships are strong. Pupils wear the school uniform with pride. Most parents express positive views about the school.

For example, one parent commented, 'We are happy with the school and standards have improved.' You and your staff provide a broad variety of enrichment and extra-curricular activities for the pupils, which they very much appreciate. These include art and drama clubs, sports, and homework and study support facilities.

Leaders, governors and the trust have a clear understanding of the strengths of the school and its areas for further development. Working together well, they have successfully addressed the areas for improvement set at the last inspection. You have well-considered plans intended to address the current priorities, including improving the attendance of pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities and strengthening the quality of teaching and pupils' outcomes in languages.

You recognise the need for governors to monitor the impact of the pupil premium funding more closely. Safeguarding is effective. A positive culture of safeguarding runs throughout the school, ensuring that pupils are safe and secure.

Leaders have established effective systems and procedures that meet statutory requirements and are fit for purpose. Pupils say that they feel safe in the school, and this confidence is strongly supported by the views of parents. Professional relationships with external agencies are effective.

Your designated safeguarding lead is well supported by a deputy. Training of staff and governors is both comprehensive and regular. For example, procedures related to recruitment of staff are thorough because leaders and governors have been appropriately trained in safer recruitment.

In addition, staff that join the school mid-year receive suitable safeguarding training as part of their induction to the school. Leaders provide regular training relating to any changes in safeguarding practices as required, including training in child protection. As a result, all staff know the signs to look out for that may indicate that a pupil is at risk of harm and are confident in what action to take when necessary to support vulnerable pupils.

Inspection findings ? We considered how successfully leaders have improved the quality of teaching across the school. Overall, this work has been effective. School information and inspection evidence indicate that most current pupils make steady progress over time.

However, identified weaknesses in teaching have led to disappointing outcomes in French and Spanish. Leaders have addressed these weaknesses through the appointment of new teachers and the provision of focused training. As a result, pupils are now making better progress within these subjects.

Nevertheless, these areas remain a priority for continued and sustained improvement. ? We explored how well leaders have supported the development of pupils who enter the school with low levels of literacy. We found that this work is increasingly effective.

Leaders have established an effective literacy strategy involving, for example, the provision of small-group targeted literacy support and the promotion of literacy skills across all subjects. Evidence from learning walks, scrutiny of pupils' work and speaking with pupils indicated growing improvements in pupils' levels of literacy when compared with their starting points on entry to the school. ? We also considered how successfully leaders have secured improved outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.

Disadvantaged pupils' progress at the end of key stage 4 in 2017 was strong overall, with pupils' progress close to or matching the progress of other pupils nationally with similar starting points in English, mathematics and science. Despite the 2018 provisional results indicating a weaker performance than in the past, inspection evidence, including scrutiny of disadvantaged pupils' work in other year groups, indicates that current pupils are on track to make strong progress. Governors' monitoring of the strategy to improve outcomes for this group has not been as robust as it might have been.

• Overall, provisional GCSE results for 2018 indicate that attainment in certain subjects is lower than anticipated. Leaders have responded with rapid action taken to provide additional support to ensure that any areas of underperformance are addressed. For example, pupils currently in Year 11 are now provided with a well-considered support programme to help them achieve higher standards.

• We investigated how successful leaders have been in improving attendance, especially of disadvantaged pupils and those who have SEN and/or disabilities. Attendance has been a matter of concern for leaders, notably for these groups of pupils. School information reveals an improving picture in overall attendance for most groups of pupils.

Leaders and staff have worked well together to secure this improvement, for example by using pupil premium funding to support disadvantaged pupils at risk of lower rates of attendance. The work of an educational welfare officer supports leaders through undertaking home visits and developing increasingly effective relationships with the families of disadvantaged pupils at risk of reduced attendance. As a result, the attendance of disadvantaged pupils is better than in the past.

However, the attendance of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities remains a challenge. ? We also explored the success of leaders' work to manage pupils' behaviour and address rates of exclusions. Rates of fixed-term exclusions in recent years have been consistently lower when compared with national figures.

However, leaders identified correctly a rising trend in the rates of repeated exclusions of a small minority of pupils. In response, leaders have modified the school's behaviour policy for all pupils and provided a range of successful support strategies for pupils at higher risk of exclusion. For example, The Bridge, the school's inclusion centre, is benefiting pupils who are placed there.

As a consequence, current rates of exclusion have shown a decrease. Behaviour overall has improved. Although some parents raised concerns about this, inspectors saw a calm and ordered environment.

Pupils identified improved behaviour in and out of lessons and were very positive about the 'supportive' and 'welcoming' nature of the school. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? actions taken to improve the levels of attendance for all groups of pupils continue to have impact, especially the attendance levels of those pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities ? recently introduced developments to improve the quality of teaching, particularly in Spanish and French, secure improvements in progress and attainment of all pupils ? governors monitor the impact of pupil premium funding more closely. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the chief executive officer of the multi-academy trust, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Surrey.

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely David Powell Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection I met with you at the start of the day when we discussed your evaluation of the school's effectiveness and agreed the key areas the inspectors would focus on during the inspection. During the day, inspectors held further discussions with you, your senior leaders, governors, officers from the multi-academy trust, staff and pupils.

Inspectors, accompanied by you and your senior leaders, visited 16 lessons. In addition, a selection of pupils' work was scrutinised jointly with school leaders. Inspectors took account of 89 responses to Ofsted's online questionnaire, Parent View, and considered written comments from 55 parents.

Inspectors also considered 52 staff responses, and 37 responses from pupils to their respective online questionnaires. Inspectors met with pupils in key stages 3 and 4. In addition, we analysed a wide range of the school's documentation, including leaders' checks on pupils' progress, attendance and behaviour information, minutes of governors' meetings, and safeguarding policies and procedures.