Our School Improvement Service

RMAT began supporting ENLUTC in July 2017.  We have provided Maths, English, Geography, MFL and Computer Science support.  Alongside HR and ICT technical support.  We are very proud that our partnership has contributed to the Good judgement ENLUTC received in March 2018, and it continues to flourish.

• Leadership and teaching capacity – 2 Vice Principals, Assistant Principal (Science), Head of Humanities, Head of Maths and teachers of RE and Science
• NLE support for Principal
• HR support

Section 5 Inspection October 2017 – External Support

The principal worked swiftly alongside governors to commission experienced external support for leadership in the school from a variety of sources, in particular RMAT. Through this, leaders are overhauling systems, policies and procedures so that the school can improve rapidly.

• Leadership and teaching capacity
• Support for the removal of the academy from serious weaknesses to requires improvement and the subsequent monitoring visit in November 2017
• External validation from DfE advisor and Ofsted November 2016 and 2017 (see below)
• Mentoring support for the Principal/Interim Principal was ongoing from 2015 from Executive Headteacher
• HR support from Trust central team
• SEND support from Trust central core team

Section 8 Inspection November 2017 – External support
The Academies Enterprise Trust has brokered support from the Rodillian Multi Academy Trust. The chief executive officer of the Rodillian Multi Academy Trust, together with some of his senior leaders, have worked closely with the school since the previous inspection. This support has had a positive impact. More robust pupil progress tracking systems enable leaders and staff to keep an eye on the progress of different groups of pupils. This has led to more timely interventions for those at risk of underachievement. Leaders from the Rodillian Multi Academy Trust have worked with leaders to embed the ‘positive discipline’ policy. As a result, behaviour has improved and there is a more positive climate for learning.

Eskdale had many similarities to our successful work at BBG Academy as Eskdale was also moving from being a middle school to a mainstream secondary school. Consequently, the Headteacher and Governing Body asked RMAT to support them through the process. This was made particularly challenging by the issues in recruit high quality staff on the East Coast and the fact the school had been requiring improvement since December 2013.  Along with our school improvement work, we presented at parent consultation evenings to encourage the community buy in.
Other support consisted of:

• Headteacher attended Trust School Effectiveness Meetings
• support during LEA and Ofsted inspections
• curriculum design & building of the school timetable
• middle leader training and SLT support
• middle leader monitoring systems (Red File)
• teaching and learning support and assessment
• school Improvement plans and self-evaluation

The support went on for over a year, and we were so pleased for the students, staff, governors and the community when Eskdale was graded as a good school in November 2017.

We worked with Cottingham on a bespoke package for behaviour using our PD system as the starting point. The Senior Leaders and Pastoral staff spent a full day at Rodillian and we provided training for the whole staff and key individuals. We are pleased to say that the school was graded as good in May 2017, after being requires improvement since 2013.

“The behaviour of pupils is good. The introduction of a ‘positive discipline’ strategy means that teachers reward pupils more often and sanction them more consistently when they break the school’s clear rules. This has resulted in a substantial improvement in behaviour and better readiness for learning.”  Ofsted May 2017

The work with Cottingham has led to some very successful and productive school improvement work with Hornsea School and Longcroft, also in the East Riding.

Chaucer bought a Gold package of PD support, which, after training with Rodillian staff and a number of improvement partner visits, training staff started them on the journey from inadequate.

“Behaviour is continuing to improve. Over time, there has been a reduction in the amount of poor behaviour, including fewer removals from lessons and less internal truancy, verbal abuse and fixed-term exclusions.”   Ofsted Section 8, June 2017

Penistone staff visited The Rodillian Academy for a day and sent most of their SLT to one of our conferences. They have worked with our colleagues on PD and bought into the Resilience Curriculum. They recently had a successful short inspection and received praise for looking for continuing improvements and resting on previous success.

“You have implemented a new behaviour policy that is focused on changing behaviours rather than managing it. In lessons observed by inspectors and through conversations with pupils, the majority of pupils show that they value the merits that staff regularly award to pupils when they behave well.”

The Rodillian Academy was approached to support John Smeaton by Leeds Local Authority in November 2013. The school was in Special Measures and on 34% 5A*-C with English and Maths. An Academy Sponsor United Learning Trust had been chosen but there was a hold up to conversion. Rodillian was asked to support the school until the conversion. In January 2014 the school converted to Academy status with United Learning Trust. Rodillian, however, were asked to remain with Andy Goulty becoming the Executive Headteacher, this was under a 5-year contract. Rodillian Multi Academy Trust (RMAT) supported John Smeaton Academy with up to 15 teachers and leaders on secondment there at any one time. Results have improved significantly over the time rising from 34% in 2013 to 50% in 2017. RMAT also led the school from Special Measures in the Ofsted of December 2016 where the work of the Trust was praised:

“Leaders have quickly identified the areas they need to develop and teaching is improving. Leaders have strong capacity to improve the school further.”

“Pupils say they feel safe and enjoy their time at the school.”

“Recently, ‘coaching’, using best practice within the school and the Rodillian Multi-Academy Trust, has been supporting improvement in teaching and middle leadership.”

“Since September 2016, the Rodillian Multi-Academy Trust has been given greater strategic influence in supporting the school. This has helped to increase the rate of improvement across the school.”

This was echoed in the recent Ofsted of December 2017:
“United Learning has brokered support from the Rodillian Multi-Academy Trust. This has led to effective leadership support at both senior and middle leadership level. This is helping to drive improvement across the school.”

Andy Goulty and the RMAT team ended their leadership of John Smeaton Academy in December 2017 and leadership was passed over to United Learning Trust. At that time predictions were for 55% of students to achieve 4+ basics. Our best wishes go to United Learning Trust in hoping that this record score can be achieved.

We wish the school all the best for the future.

Attendance support has been provided at Ridgewood since January 2017 after we were approached directly by the School.  At that time whole school attendance was 93.6%. By April 2017 overall school attendance had improved by 0.8%, with a significant rise in Year 11 attendance of 1.6%.  Attendance has continued to rise with the School achieving 94.3% attendance and 13% PA by the end of 2016-2017 and 95.3% attendance and a further reduction in PA to 9.6% in 2017-2018.

Following on from the support at Ridgewood we were approached by Hallcross Academy in October 2018.  Attendance for 2017-2018 was 91.1%, with Year 11’s attendance being 81.2%.  Due diligence was processed, and quickly new policies and procedures were put into place which included the recruitment of an Attendance Officer who could support in house initiatives and complete any legal work required before referral to the Local Authority.  Due to strategies put in place, student attendance in 2018/2019 rose to 94%.  Attendance up to the start of the pandemic was 95% with a 11.7% PA, and Year 11’s had significantly improved to 93.6%.