Tribal T 0300 123 1231 1-4 Portland Square Text Phone: 0161 6188524 Direct T 0117 311 5359 [email protected] Direct F 0117 315 0430 BS2 8RR www.ofsted.gov.uk Email: [email protected]

26 February 2014

Mrs M Warnes Executive Headteacher Vattingstone Lane Bristol BS35 3LA

Dear Mrs Warnes

Requires improvement: monitoring inspection visit to Marlwood School

Following my visit to your school on 25 February 2014, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report the findings. Thank you for the help you gave me and for the time you made available to discuss the actions you are taking to improve the school since the most recent section 5 inspection.

The visit was the first monitoring inspection since the school was judged to require improvement following the section 5 inspection in December 2013. It was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

Senior leaders and governors are taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement identified at the recent section 5 inspection.

Evidence

During the visit, meetings were held with you, other senior leaders, students, three members of the governing body and a representative of the local authority to evaluate the action taken since the last inspection. In addition I undertook a ‘learning walk’ of the school and looked at a range of students’ books. The school improvement plan was evaluated.

Context

Since the section 5 inspection, the previous headteacher has left and you became the interim headteacher from January 2014. The school is due to become a

sponsored academy as part of the Castle School Educational Trust. Although the exact date has not been finalised for the school to become an academy you have been appointed as the executive headteacher of both Castle School and Marlwood School. Advertisements for the two positions of operational headteacher, one for each school, have been published.

Main findings

You are providing a strong educational direction, conveying high expectations to the whole school community. Following the restructuring and review of leadership and management, senior staff now have a clear understanding of their responsibilities and know how they will be held accountable. This team is keen to create a culture of continuous development and improvement. Expectations of what students can achieve have been raised and the school now has a clear overview of the strengths and weaknesses in teaching and learning. This is evidenced by the detailed, yet tightly focussed, school improvement plan.

During my ‘learning walk’, I noted that students were attentive and lessons were taking place in an orderly manner. The students that I spoke with confirmed my judgement that behaviour has got better since December; nevertheless, the ‘consequences’ system could be improved. You and I discussed that the improvements should ensure that students do not miss out on getting a good choice of food at lunchtime and that any sanctions implemented need to show demonstrable improvements in individual student’s behaviour.

The quality of the weakest marking by teachers has improved significantly since Christmas. There is now a more consistent checking by teachers of the use of grammar and punctuation along with the presentation of work in students’ books. Increasingly, the marking in students’ books shows how they can improve their work and indicates where work is incomplete. However, the impact of this feedback on increasing students’ achievement remains limited. This is because it is seldom backed up by teachers checking that the students understand the comments, can apply the improvements, or that they have completed previously unfinished work. In addition, teachers do not support students enough when they are asked to mark their own or their peers’ work. As a consequence, students are unsure about the accuracy of their marking and this does not help them to understand where marks can be ‘lost’ in examinations.

The planning of lessons has become more consistent, although you have noted that much more needs to be done to get staff to focus on the expected outcomes in terms of students’ progress in relation to their individual targets, rather than activities to be completed. The planned training for staff is intended to help students better understand how their end of key stage targets are generated. It is also

designed to help students recognise and implement the smaller learning steps/targets that need to be achieved to reach their personal targets.

Ofsted may carry out further visits and, where necessary, provide further support and challenge to the school until its next section 5 inspection.

External support

Recent external support from the local authority has led to a restructured leadership team and enabled the school to become an academy. Further support from the two successful schools already in the trust is already planned.

I am copying this letter to the Chair of the Governing Body, the Education Funding Agency and the Director of Children’s Services for South .

Yours sincerely

Steffi Penny Her Majesty’s Inspector