Ofsted inspectors have found there is ‘regular potential for violence’ at a South Bristol school, in a damning inspection report. And the actions taken by leaders at the school to split up the pupils now mean their educational needs aren’t being met.
The inspectors judged every single aspect of the education and leadership at Lansdown Park Academy in Stockwood to be ‘inadequate’, after discovering most of the staff and leaders are new, the buildings have been neglected and pupils with special education needs are left in a school that doesn’t meet their needs, with staff that don’t know how to deal with them.
The shocking report followed an inspection by three Ofsted staff on February 9 and 10 this year. Lansdown Park Academy is a two-site pupil referral unit mainly based at the Stockwood site, with the academy also running a unit at Rush Hill in Bath.
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The inspectors were critical of what they found at the Stockwood base, saying the quality of education secondary school age pupils receive there is ‘poor’.
“There is regular potential for violence between groups of pupils,” lead inspector Stephen McShane wrote. “Leaders have taken action to safeguard pupils and stop fights by adjusting when different pupils and groups of pupils attend the site. This now means that pupils have timetables of activities that do not meet their needs.
“Pupils’ attendance is sporadic. When they do attend, the quality of education and support to meet their needs are poor. They are not learning well enough. They do not have the opportunities to address their social and emotional needs. Consequently, they are not well prepared for life when they leave,” the inspector added.
The pupil referral unit was originally a mainstream primary school called Stockwood Green, run by Bristol City Council. But just over ten years ago, after a lengthy battle with parents in Stockwood, it was closed and the buildings re-used as a 'specialist secondary provision' for the Lansdown Park pupil referral unit, still run by the council.
In 2017, it was handed over from the council to the Leicestershire-based Learn-@ multi academy trust. in 2017. At previous inspections of the old Lansdown Park School, when it was council-run, Ofsted inspectors judged it ‘satisfactory’. The school’s last inspection report before it was taken over by the academy trust was in 2013, where Ofsted said the school was ‘good’.
The February 2022 inspection was the first of the school in nine years, and the first since the city council handed over control to the multi-academy trust almost five years ago.
Less than a year ago, in April 2021, the then chief executive of the Learn-@ Multi Academy Trust, Peter Evans, was named in a report by Schools Week which looked into the pay of the big multi-academy trust bosses. Mr Evans was named as the second best paid boss per pupil in the country - with Schools Weeks reporting that his minimum pay was £135,000 a year running a multi-academy trust with just four schools and 323 pupils.
At Lansdown Park Academy, the inspectors acknowledged that the interim headteacher there had been in post for just four weeks when they arrived in February, but said the problems at the school were deep-set.
The inspectors said they found that Bristol and Bath and North East Somerset commissioned places for pupils who had been referred from other schools for short periods of time, or needed specialist provision quickly, but the reality was that many pupils ended up staying for a long time.
“The local authority commissions short-term places so that pupils return to mainstream schools or are placed in specialist provision quickly,” the report said. “In reality, some pupils are left at the provision for a long period of time. Consequently, the curriculum becomes inappropriate,” it added.
The issue was more acute for pupils with special education needs or disabilities. “Many of the pupils have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Their needs are not met as the provision is not the right place for them. Staff do not have the specialist skills or knowledge they need to help them,” the report stated.
“The Stockwood site is neglected and this demonstrates the low expectations. There is a lack of clear purpose or vision,” the report added.
Violence between pupils at Lansdown Park Academy is such a huge issue that it was affecting the way lessons were provided and which pupils could come in and when.
“Leaders have addressed the potential for violence on the Stockwood site in the classroom and playground by reorganising the attendance of pupils. Different groups now attend part-time on site and have different activities off site. However, they are frequently late and do not engage. Pupils in the secondary provision experience a jumbled, disconnected curriculum. They do not build their knowledge and understanding over time. The English and mathematics curriculums do not provide continuity of learning. Pupils are not challenged,” the report added.
The results were stark, inspectors said, with many pupils at the PRU experiencing a failing education, and seeing their future in juvenile detention. The Ofsted inspectors said they were vulnerable to end up in gangs or get into knife crime or drugs.
“At the Stockwood site there is little evidence of pupils learning well over time, before the recent changes, so they can be successful in future placements,” the report said. “There is limited evidence of ambition for pupils. Pupils have little ambition for themselves. In the worst case they see their future in prison or juvenile detention.
“The curriculum does not address sufficiently the needs of pupils in any systematic way. Staff place too much importance on pupils simply ‘engaging’. There is insufficient attention given to pupils developing the knowledge and skills to help them succeed. There is a lack of education to help pupils to address some of the issues they are likely to face, for example knife crime, drugs and gangs. This means the pupils are vulnerable,” the report added.
The inspectors found a mixed picture across the three sites, saying improvements were being made at Rush Hill and in the primary school settings.
And the inspectors did say the new leadership at Lansdown Park knew the scale of the challenge facing them. “
“The interim headteacher and the chief executive officer (CEO) of the multi-academy trust have already taken important decisions to strengthen the academy. They have an accurate view on what needs to be done. The local academy council are committed to doing their best. However, they do not have enough knowledge and information to hold leaders to account sufficiently,” the report said.
The inspectors said they found a few staff who were proud to work there, but many were ‘very unhappy’ and were ‘concerned about their treatment and the quality of education that pupils receive’.
Bristol Live has approached both the Learn-AT multi-academy trust, and Bristol City Council about the Ofsted report and is awaiting a response.
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