Leadership & Management

The leadership team and School Committee (formerly LGB) have exceptionally high expectations for pupils’ achievement, behaviour and personal development and these are robustly monitored by the Trust Directors and Standards Committee. The quality of education is excellent and this is demonstrated in the improved outcomes at the end of key stages, as well as being validated through external school improvement inspections. This has been achieved through a broad and balanced curriculum and high-quality teaching. Staff have unwavering expectations and ambition for pupils, particularly our disadvantaged pupils. All staff are passionate about providing the highest standards of education for all pupils and are committed to embodying the school motto – Learn, Achieve, Love, Believe - and school values.

Leaders have developed a strong and consistent ethos throughout the school, which has been communicated to staff and pupils and is evident in all aspects of school life. High expectations of pupils and staff have ensured a significant improvement in all areas, and underperformance is tackled swiftly and effectively. At the heart of The Three Saints Academy Trust is the North West Learning Partnership, which services over 50 schools across the NW and also provides the majority of CPD for schools within the Trust. A rigorous programme of CPD, aligned to whole school priorities and the curriculum, is in place to develop staff, with a supportive and coaching model used by the leaders to encourage and develop less experienced teachers to ensure high standards of teaching and learning in all classes. The religious character of the school is distinctive and woven into the ethos of the school, with the Christian Values forming an intrinsic part of the whole school culture.

Since the last inspection, there have been significant changes in staffing, including in the leadership team, with a new AHT, SLT and the HT being appointed. Distributed leadership has been consistently developed over the last few years, and a carefully planned development programme is in place to develop all staff at different levels of subject leadership, and to succession plan for future years. Staff teams provide the support for less experienced staff to experience monitoring activities whilst being coached by senior leaders to develop their understanding of these activities and to moderate judgements. Curriculum teams also work together to analyse and review impact, looking at key groups across the school to identify trends and to action plan for the following term, based on the outcomes. This could be planning CPD to address an issue, auditing or resourcing, gaining pupil voice to gain insight into key groups etc. This practice, alongside senior leaders, has been invaluable in upskilling staff new to subject leadership and ensuring high quality education of across the curriculum.

This year, two members of staff have been accepted onto the new NPQLTD and a third is starting the NPQLBC to further develop their skills. A further staff member is training as an NCETM School Development Lead.

High quality CPD has been paramount in improving outcomes in the school, with the Trust and Maths Hub playing a significant role in this. Staff have accessed the ECT and RQT programmes, as well as subject leader networks, and year group specific training for reading, writing and maths. This has been targeted specifically at developing staff understanding of how to ensure challenge for More Able learners and how to develop reasoning in maths, both key priorities for the school. Leaders have worked with Maths Mastery specialists and Specialist Leaders in Education to develop practice across the school, and CPD from outside agencies has been arranged to ensure high standards are achieved across the curriculum too eg the local computing hub for teaching computing and coding and Art specialist to deliver practical CPD sessions to develop staff skills in this subject. Collaboration across the Trust has also enabled the school to make use of experienced staff to support less experienced teachers, building more capacity in the school over the last 12 months. As curriculum development is a key priority for the school, leaders from across the Trust have collaborated to provide specialist support in this area, through a whole Trust CPD conference, as well as through bespoke year group sessions aimed at developing the teaching of curriculum topics to ensure the same rigour and high quality outcomes as those from core subjects.

M​onitoring and Moderation

A robust and carefully planned monitoring programme is in place, which is carried out by all leaders to constantly review and assure the Quality of Education being provided to all pupils. Work scrutiny, lesson observations and assessment data, alongside moderation exercises, are used to triangulate information and check that expectations for the delivery of all areas of the curriculum are consistent. Where necessary, additional support is put in place for staff identified as needing it, ensuring that areas for development are quickly addressed, for example support for individual members of staff by a senior leader in planning or team teaching sessions to develop practice, or if it is a wider issue then staff meeting CPD will be planned to address it. Through the open culture within the school, staff make use of staff meetings to bring books/planning/resources and ask for clarity, support or to share good practice, something which is valued by staff and has helped build practice and consistency throughout the school. This is a strength of the staff team and a direct impact of the leaders building a consistent culture of development and support in school.

As well as internal moderation, the staff all participate in moderation with the schools across the Trust, and in Rec, Y2 and Y6, moderation sessions with the Local Authority and wider networks also take place. These sessions ensure that teacher assessments are accurate and identify any areas where additional support needs to be planned for by leaders.

Alongside the monitoring and evaluation schedule, the school assesses pupils termly. Leaders use this information to monitor the quality of education provided and if it is having the expected impact on outcomes. Where pupils are identified as not making the expected progress, necessary actions are implemented swiftly.

S​taff Wellbeing and Workload

The school has had a dedicated approach to reducing teacher workload and ensuring staff well-being. In the last three years, following a staff workload survey and the DfE recommendations, a number of actions were carried out: review of the marking and feedback policy to include live marking; ensuring that no school events take place out of working hours or at weekends; reduction in twilight sessions and use of Inset days as asked for by staff; significantly reduced end of year school report format; committing to protected PPA time, no matter what is in the school calendar; staff well-being meetings to discuss stress management and health checks provided by the Healthy Schools Team; as well as a number of small, morale building actions that take place throughout the year. Senior leaders have an open-door policy and staff feel valued by leaders. The impact of this is demonstrated in staff morale which is high and evidenced through the staff questionnaires completed in Dec 2022 where 100% of staff said that they enjoyed working at the school and 100% said they were proud to be a member of staff at our school.

S​taff Questionnaire

The school also achieved the ‘5 Ways to Wellbeing Award’ in July 2022, for its commitment to pupil and staff wellbeing.

Since the last inspection, staff and leaders have made significant improvements across the school, and in particular in the areas identified in the report. Attainment and progress in all areas at the end of KS2 is in line or above national until 2019, with a slight cohort related decline in 2022, and attainment in KS1 has improved significantly in all areas. As previously discussed, development of middle leaders is a key priority of the school and a clear programme of development and succession planning is in place for the next three years. EYFS provision has been dramatically enhanced, with standards rising continually over the last three years (further detail provided in the EYFS section).

Attainment of disadvantaged pupils is above national data sets in all areas in both KS1 and KS2 2022 data, demonstrating the impact of the strategy in place for PP spending.

P​upil Premium Strategy 2023

The pupil premium strategy identifies the main barriers impacting on our pupils, and the planned spend of the funding directly addresses them. The rationale behind decisions for spend is clearly documented and is routed in national research eg EEF, as well as experience of what has worked in our context previously. Attainment and progress of disadvantaged pupils is monitored throughout the year. Provision maps are used to clearly demonstrate the barriers to learning and the interventions and support pupils receive to ensure that these do not affect progress. These provision maps are tracked termly to ensure that pupils are receiving the correct support and that it is having the intended impact. Progress of PP pupils is discussed in depth as a discrete group at pupil progress meetings. Where variation in attainment or progress becomes evident, review of the strategies takes place. The CEO of the Trust (who is an NLE and nationally trained Pupil Premium Reviewer) conducts an in-depth, annual Pupil Premium Review alongside the HT and reports on findings. This is then fed into the pupil premium plan and amendments made if necessary.

Leaders ensure that the PE and Sports premium is used effectively through an annual plan, which clearly sets out and evaluates the previous year’s celebrations and areas for development. This ensures that spending is targeted on priorities. Where outside providers are used, monitoring takes place to ensure quality of provision.

SEND funding is targeted effectively to ensure that pupils with additional needs access quality first teaching. The SENDCO alongside the HT, expertly reviews SEND progress each term. This ensures that the most effective provision is in place. When circumstances change, the SENDCO works with outside agencies and the LA to swiftly adjust the provision based upon the pupils’ needs. A range of interventions are in place to ensure that all SEND learners make sustained progress from their starting points, with leaders using developments in research and the latest findings to adapt the programmes used in school to continually ensure that they ae meeting the identified needs of pupils eg this year the introduction of Memory Magic has been in response to teachers and EP reports identifying a number of children struggling with working memory.

What Makes and I​nclusive Classroom at St Michael with St Thomas?

S​END on a Page

The school has worked hard to build relationships with parents and engage them in supporting school with educating their children. All staff believe the parent/carer’s role is crucial for a child to succeed in school, and this is mirrored by the many opportunities we provide for parents/carers to engage with school. Family learning sessions and insight lessons have been implemented for all classes, encouraging parents to come into school and experience what is happening in the classrooms. It has also allowed teachers to share strategies for teaching which parents can then use at home to support their children. These sessions are always well attended with very positive feedback. We have produced parent guidance booklets to support parents with home learning, for maths and grammar, which have glossaries and pictorial representations for clarity. Weekly newsletters are used to celebrate the successes in the school, highlight any whole school issues and keep parents informed of key dates and events. There is a clear, graduated response for dealing with concerns around behaviour, attitudes and attendance and these processes are followed closely by all staff which ensure rigour and consistency across the school.

P​arent Questionnaire - December 2022

During the significant changes that have taken place in the school since the last inspection, there has been a need to ensure some boundaries be drawn, as some of the school community have historically had a significant say in the day to day running of the school. Ensuring the adherence to policies and developing consistency across the school has been an ongoing challenge, with some opposition from parents and the wider school community due to an objection to change, however leaders have managed this through ensuring the culture of respect remains paramount, and as the positive impacts of the changes have become evident, objections have become less. This is evidenced in the parent questionnaire outcomes from December 2020, which demonstrates the significantly increased parental confidence in the school.

Governance

The School Committee (formerly LGB) was established in September 2019, following the conversion of the school, and is made up of 3 foundation members (including the incumbent), 2 parent members and 2 staff members (including the HT). The Scheme of Delegation is available below. The School Committee meets 4 times a year and their main remit is standards, school ethos, behaviour and the Christian distinctiveness of the school. Through termly open mornings and meetings, they hold leaders to account in the progress towards milestones for the key priorities identified in the SIP, as well as supporting the school in meeting the SIAMs expectations for an effective church school. Whilst face to face meetings have been unable to take place in recent years, leaders ensured that the SC was kept informed and up to date, making use of technology and creative ways to share information, leading to the SC having a clear understanding of the current challenges and celebrations of the school. This year, all face to face meetings have resumed.

In addition to the School Committee, we have additional layers of Governance within the Academy Trust: 5 Members, appointed by Liverpool Diocese who approve the accounts and appoint the Directors; Up to 12 Directors who are appointed by Members and are responsible for the running of the Trust, which they delegate day to day to the CEO; specific responsibilities are delegated by Directors to committees–Finance and Audit, Curriculum and Standards and School Committees.

Safeguarding

The HT is the DSL, supported by the FSW and AHT as the DDSLs. The training for all is renewed every two years. The DSL/DDSL also attend half termly network meetings where they receive updates from the LA Safeguarding lead. All DSL/DDSLs have also completed the 2 day Working Together Training along with additional training this year on specific issues eg Operation Encompass Key Adult, SVSH, FII, Bruising in Children and Country Lines. All staff receive the annual Safeguarding update training, which is delivered by the Trust Safeguarding Lead (who is a Specialist Leader in Education for Safeguarding) as well as half termly Safeguarding briefings with the HT at the first staff meeting of each half term, addressing specific concerns eg whistleblowing and LLC policies, Operation Encompass responses, Online Safety etc. All staff also complete online Safeguarding training on a two year rolling programme for CSE, FGM, Prevent and Forced Marriages.

The HT and School Business Manager (SBM) have undertaken Safer Recruitment training and ensure safer recruitment practices are in place for all appointments. The SCR is checked termly by the School Committee Chair as the School Committee Safeguarding Lead.

Staff have clear processes in place for reporting any concerns, including Whistleblowing and LLC procedures, and Safeguarding is a standing item on all staff meeting agendas. All students, volunteers and visitors are made aware of their responsibilities and the need for vigilance through a leaflet which is given to everyone when they come on site, and through specific Safeguarding induction processes.

Support from the Local Children’s Safeguarding Board is timely and supports the school in the reporting and management of concerns, and all staff in the school are confident in how to challenge and escalate where necessary. School has rigorous and comprehensive record keeping practices in place for reporting and monitoring concerns through the use of CPOMs.