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Flying Bull

Challenge Partners Review - OUTSTANDING

For the second year in a row our Challenge Partners Review is Outstanding!

Following our latest review carried out by Challenge Partners we are very proud that they have given us an overall estimate of OUTSTANDING again! On the 12th and 13th March 2019, a team of reviewers (made up of senior leaders from other schools) carried out a review at The Flying Bull Academy. To read the full report click here

The full report is extremely complimentary about the three areas upon which they focus:

•             School Improvement Strategies - Outstanding

•             Outcomes for pupils - Good

•             Quality of Teaching, Learning and Assessment - Outstanding

•             Overall - Outstanding

Here are some of the things mentioned in our report that reflects the excellent work of everyone associated with The Flying Bull Academy:

“Strategies that were new at the time of the last review have had time to embed and are having a positive impact.”

“Through working closely as a team with senior leaders and being highly focused on the improvement plan, phase leaders are effectively driving improvements forward.”

“Pupils say that adults know them well and this gives them confidence that challenges will be at the right level to move them on."

“High quality cover supervisors take over when teachers are out of class for professional development, phase leader duties or subject leader duties.”

“Leadership is distributed well. The four phase leaders meet regularly with the headteacher and deputy headteacher and bring back reports of how initiatives are going and where extra support is needed.”

“The special educational needs coordinator (SENDCo) is highly effective in managing the TA team and the unit provision.”

“Flying Bull benefits greatly from contact with Chichester University, drawing on lecturers’ expertise in reading and spelling development for example.”

“Having the capacity to think about their learning – metacognition – gives pupils great confidence and security about their ability to succeed.”

“Teachers are confident in encouraging pupils to take risks and face challenges. This is well supported through the ‘growth mindset’ approach that encourages pupils’ resilience.”

“The willingness of staff to share and respond to expertise means that spreading good practice readily and frequently takes place.”

“There is a strong sense of everyone working as a team. This sense of teamwork extends to older pupils supporting younger ones in their reading time.”

“…teachers deepen pupils’ learning is to engage in questioning that requires pupils to reflect on and justify their answers.”

“All classrooms have helpful displays to remind pupils about recent learning, so they can apply this to the task in hand.”

"Pupils are willing to take ‘risks’ because it is not wrong to make a mistake; what matters is thinking about it and learning from it.”

“Pupils clearly enjoy the stimulating learning environment that the school provides. They are proud of their school and work hard because they feel privileged to be part of it.”

“Learners receive appropriate support from TAs in class or in interventions out of class. The LAPS team are also on call to withdraw pupils and help them refocus on learning, or to work alongside them in class.”

“The high impact of the school’s approach to developing reading skills and wider reading is evident.”

“Pupils with SEND make very good progress from very low baselines as a result of an exceptionally wide range of personally targeted support strategies.”

“Pupils’ books show a variety of approaches to problem-solving and use of reasoning as well as plenty of accurate calculation.”