Outwood Grange Academy Achieves Inclusive School Award

Outwood Grange Academy has achieved has achieved the Inclusive School Award.

Outwood Grange Academy is a mainstream secondary school for students aged 11-19 years with 1,962 on roll, with 210 in post-16. The population consists of 12.5% disadvantaged and 6.6% Special Education Needs (SEN) support, which is below the national average. Autism and Specific Learning Difficulties are the academy’s primary needs, followed closely by Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs.  

Guidance documents are provided at Trust level for all aspects of inclusion practice within the academy. These documents are written by Directors who visit schools regularly and in collaboration with the leaders. The Vice Principals of Deep Support work closely together to monitor the implementation and effectiveness of all policies and collaborate with the Principal and Directors to review these, where necessary. Trust ethos ‘Students first’ and all the policies support the inclusive practice in school. Students receive regular input through the tutor programme and assemblies to promote respect. 

There is a robust personal development curriculum in place that links to the Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) and Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) curriculums and is threaded throughout subjects, form time, careers and assemblies. The academy is fortunate to employ a Safer Schools Police Officer four days a week to support with the personal development curriculum and contextualised safeguarding issues, as well as education on the law.  

Student voice is captured via form representatives and year group representatives who liaise directly with the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) to raise concerns or suggestions.

The pupils spoken to said that they felt safe in school and could give examples of who they would talk to if they had a concern. 

All the lessons the IQM Assessor visited displayed full student engagement and inclusive teaching that provided appropriate support for a variety of students including those with Special Educational Needs (SEN), English as an Additional Language (EAL) and disadvantaged students. Progress was evident in book scrutinies. 

Read the full report on the IQM website.