Inspection Report (2005)

INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS COUNCIL (ISC)
INSPECTION OF
BOWBROOK HOUSE SCHOOL
PEOPLETON, PERSHORE
by the
INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS INSPECTORATE (ISI)
Summary Inspection Report
Full Name of the School Bowbrook House School
DfES Number 885/6925
Address Peopleton, Pershore, Worcestershire WR10 2EE
Telephone Number 01905 841242
Fax Number 01905 840716
Email Address bowbrookhouse@school73.freeserve.co.uk
Name of Principal Mr Christopher Allen
Proprietor Mr Christopher Allen
Age Range 3 - 16
Gender Mixed
Number of Pupils 165
Number of Boarders None
Inspections Dates 14th - 18th March 2005

This inspection report follows the framework laid down by the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI). The inspection was carried out under the arrangements of the Independent Schools Council (ISC) Associations for the maintenance and improvement of the quality of their membership. It was also carried out under Section 163(1)(b) of the Education Act 2002, under the provisions of which the Secretary of State for Education and Skills has accredited ISI as the body approved for the purpose of inspecting schools belonging to ISC Associations and reporting on compliance with the Education (Independent School Standards)(England) Regulations 2003.
The inspection does not examine the financial viability of the school or investigate its accounting procedures. The inspectors check the school’s health and safety procedures and comment on any significant hazards they encounter: they do not carry out an exhaustive health and safety examination. Their inspection of the premises is from an educational perspective and does not include in-depth examination of the structural condition of the school, its services or other physical features.

Main Findings

Overall Summary
Bowbrook House School is a supportive, growing and improving rural school for boys and girls aged 3 to 16. Pupils benefit from small classes and a high level of pastoral care. The school receives very strong support from its parents. Its pupils, whose behaviour is excellent, grow in confidence through the encouragement of the staff. The head leads well but middle management structures are not clear, and shortcomings also exist in accommodation, resources and staffing.

What the School Does Well
* The school provides a good environment for pupils to find their feet and has important strengths.
* The attitude and behaviour of the boys and girls are excellent and conducive to good learning.
* The staff take very good care of the pupils and encourage them to do well.
* Liaison between staff and parents is very good.
* Most boys and girls enjoy and succeed in the subjects they study and the sports they play at school.

What the School should Do Better
The following weaknesses are holding back improvement of the education the school offers.
The school does not organise the working day to make best use of time for teaching and other curricular activities.
Parts of the main house and a number of other buildings are inadequate for pupils’ needs; several buildings lack maintenance and have poor decoration.
Information and communication technology (ICT) resources are insufficient to enable effective teaching in all subjects, and the use pupils make of ICT at school is limited.
The roles of middle managers are not clearly defined; as a result, the junior department lacks direction, and coordination and curricular planning across year groups and stages in the school are weak.

Standards of Attainment and Progress in Subjects
* The overall standard of attainment and progress is good in relation to pupils’ abilities. Attainment and progress are almost always satisfactory, and often they are good, but they are better in some year groups than in others.
* Numbers in each year are very small, so that the performance of one or two individuals has a disproportionate impact on results in national tests and examinations from one year to the next.
* In general, pupils attain results in national tests at the ages of 7 and 14 and in public examinations at 16 that are above the average in all maintained schools nationally, but they fall below national averages in the tests at age 11.
* Pupils with special needs make good progress and abler pupils make sound progress.

The Quality of Pupils' Learning, Attitudes and their Behaviour
* The quality of learning and behaviour is very good.
* Pupils learn well. They are attentive, they concentrate well, they cooperate with their teachers and with each other, but few learn independently of the staff or explore beyond the homework they are set.
* The behaviour of boys and girls in all years is excellent.
* They enjoy being at the school and are proud of it.

The Quality of teaching
The overall quality of teaching is good; in nearly one-third of the lessons seen it was very good; on occasions, it was excellent. In almost all other lessons, it meets the needs of most pupils and makes a significant contribution to the quality of their attainment and progress.
Very good teaching displays a passion for the subject, a readiness to try new approaches, and tasks well matched to pupils' abilities.In the small but significant minority of lessons in which teaching is unsatisfactory, the pace is slow and the work undemanding.

Other aspects of the School

Attendance:-
Levels of attendance are good. The school maintains attendance and admissions registers very well. Pupils arrive promptly at school at the start of the day but not always to lessons, and staff do not always begin lessons on time.

Assessment, recording and reporting:-
The school has sound procedures for the assessment and recording of pupils' attainment and progress. Many subject departments follow good practice. Teachers generally mark effectively and record marks well. However, the school has insufficient progress data to set targets and does not have a strategy to enable senior and middle management to monitor progress effectively.

Curriculum:-
Curricular provision is sound in relation to the size of the school and its facilities. It offers a generally broad, balanced and appropriate education that meets the needs of the majority of pupils in each year group. The curriculum, however, has several weaknesses. For senior pupils especially, overall teaching time is insufficient. Provision for technology is rudimentary and for ICT unsatisfactory. Time allocations in the junior section are not satisfactory and many Year 10 and 11 pupils do not follow a balanced science programme.

Teaching and non-teaching staff:-
Teaching and non-teaching staff are appropriately qualified and experienced for the roles they undertake. They are sufficient in number to enable the school to offer small classes and very good pastoral care. Many, especially in the junior section, have been at the school for most of their careers. The part-time employment of most teachers in the middle and senior sections leads to inconsistent monitoring of the curriculum, assessment outcomes and subject teaching. Appraisal and professional development remain under-developed. All staff are appropriately checked before appointment.

Resources for Learning:-
In quantity and quality, resources for learning are uneven but are unsatisfactory overall. ICT provision is poor, largely because most software is out-dated. Audio-visual equipment, supplies of consumables and apparatus for science and other practical subjects, and book resources are sound. Good resources are available for games, although equipment for gymnastics is limited. Many resources used by Foundation Stage children are out of date, and they have too few wheeled toys and other apparatus to make full use of their play areas.

Libraries:-
Library provision is sound but uneven. For the size of school, the fiction library is very good but non-fiction provision is poor. Subject departments do not, in the main, have departmental libraries to compensate.

Premises and Accommodation:-
The school's premises and accommodation vary in size and quality, but they are sound overall. They support the curriculum, teaching and learning adequately, and they contribute well to pupils' personal development, behaviour and welfare. Accommodation for teaching is sound, but many rooms, including the changing rooms, in the main building are uncomfortably small. The school is generally clean and has undertaken much maintenance in recent years, although several buildings and rooms remain in a poor state of repair.

Links with Parents and the Community:-
The school has a very effective partnership with parents and is developing worthwhile links with the community. Parents, as they indicated in a survey of their views in advance of the inspection, support the school wholeheartedly. The school, in its turn, gives them good information and has good arrangements for meeting them and reporting on their children's progress. At present, the complaint procedure is incomplete. The school makes good use of nearby facilities, and offers its pitches and premises to local teams and groups. Pupils and parents actively support various charities.

Pupils' Personal Development:-
Provision for pupils' personal development is good. Opportunities for spiritual and cultural development are sound, while those for moral and social development are very good. Pupils are helped to develop their own system of spiritual beliefs. They understand right from wrong, they respect other faiths and cultures, and they develop both socially and as individuals.

Pastoral Care:-
Pastoral care and arrangements for pupils' welfare and for health and safety are good. The school offers a very high quality of pastoral care. All teachers play their part in monitoring pupils' academic progress and personal development. Measures to prevent bullying and promote discipline and behaviour are good; those for first aid are excellent. Health and safety measures, including procedures in the event of fire, are very good. Careers provision is sound.

Governance and Management:-
The governance and management are sound and enable the school to provide a good standard of education for the pupils. The head gives a strong lead. Middle management arrangements are, however, unsatisfactory and the junior department lacks clear educational direction. Communication is good. The few non-teaching staff support the school's aims well. Documentation and routine administration are good.
Achievement and Quality in Activities:-
The extra-curricular activities programme is wide-ranging and contributes well to pupils' personal development. A good proportion of the pupils take part. The programme is widely advertised to pupils and their achievements are publicly acknowledged. Many educational visits and excursions take place each year away from the school.

Progress Made by the School since its Last Inspection:-
The last inspection of the whole school was in March 1999. The inspection highlighted a number of good features but identified four shortcomings: very poor senior library provision; the low quality of some subject reports to parents; accommodation in poor condition; and lack of formal procedures for staff development and appraisal. The school has made satisfactory progress in respect of the library and subject reports. It still has much to do to improve accommodation and to introduce formal procedures for staff development and appraisal.
An OfSTED nursery inspection took place in November 2004. It judged many aspects of the nursery to be good, but indicated that pupils have few opportunities to express themselves freely and too little large physical apparatus, especially wheeled toys, with which to develop physical skills. It still has some way to go on both of these.

Compliance with the Regulations for Registration:-

DfES Standard Does the school meet the regulatory requirements?
1. Quality of Education: 1. (2) Curriculum Yes
  1. (3)-(5) Teaching It meets almost all of the requirements
2. Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils Yes  
3. Welfare, health and safety of pupils Yes  
4. Suitability of proprietors and staff It meets almost all of the requirements  
5. Premises and accommodation It meets almost all of the requirements  
6. Provision of information Yes  
7. Manner in which complaints are to be handled It meets almost all of the requirements  


Actions Required for Compliance with the Regulatory Requirements:-

In order to meet all the requirements, the school must:
(1) ensure that the teaching uses effectively classroom resources of an adequate quality, quantity and range. [Regulation 1 (3)f]
(2) submit a Criminal Records Bureau disclosure form for the proprietor via the Department for Education and Skills (DfES).[Regulation 4 (b)]
(3) ensure that classrooms are of appropriate size to allow effective teaching and do not compromise health and safety. [Regulation 5 (j)]
(4) have a complaints procedure that provides for a panel hearing if parents are dissatisfied, and keep a written record of the progress and resolution of complaints. [Regulation 7 (f, g, h, i, j)]
In addition to the actions set out above, the school is asked to deal with the matters highlighted in What the School should Do Better. These are set out as recommendations for the school in Section 2 of the report.