Outwood Academy City Fields

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 1 March 2022

Outwood Academy City Fields is a school where leaders want the very best for pupils. Their motto of putting 'students first' is something that directs and guides leaders' actions each day. Because leaders set such a strong example of their high ambitions for pupils, other staff mirror these aspirations. At Outwood Academy City Fields, the curriculum is organised in such a way as to encourage pupils to aim high and achieve highly. Most pupils behave well most of the time towards each other, their staff and visitors. However, a minority of pupils do not match the school's expectations of good standards of behaviour. These pupils disrupt lessons and cause frustration for the majority of pupils who conduct themselves as asked and want to get on. Leaders are working hard to improve the behaviour of this minority. Pupils feel safe in school, and inspectors agree that this is the case. Bullying is not seen as an issue by most of the pupils who spoke to inspectors. Most pupils feel that they can talk to their 'learning managers' or other staff if something is worrying them. Some pupils, however, think that some staff should take unkind pupil-to-pupil 'banter' more seriously when it happens.

What the school should improve

• The school's systems for behaviour management, particularly the use of exclusion and internal isolation, have not been as effective as they need to be. As a result, the standard of some pupils' behaviour, particularly those whom leaders call 'a significant minority', is not consistently good. Leaders should continue to implement the wider range of support strategies that have started to show improvements in some pupils' behaviour, as well as continuing to re-establish their basic expectations for consistently good pupil behaviour.
• Leaders' efforts to improve pupils' attendance are currently limited to successes with individual families. In part, this is because leaders' capacity to effect an overarching strategic approach to attendance is stretched, and partly because some families are proving stubbornly resistant to the school's necessary and legitimate attempts to improve the situation. The trust should ensure that the planned increase in the senior leadership team's capacity is implemented.
• The provision for pupils with SEND is variable, because the organisation of SEND provision in the school is going through a period of transition. The trust should ensure that the planned actions to strengthen the support for pupils with SEND take place, so that the provision is consistently strong.

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