Outwood Academy Foxhills achieves IQM Flagship status

Outwood Academy Foxhills has achieved the Inclusive School Award with Flagship status.

Outwood Academy Foxhills (OAF) continues to be an inclusive, high performing school that very much lives up to its mission statement of “Students first: raising standards and transforming lives”. 

The Academy became part of the Outwood Family of Schools in 2014 and, through Outstanding Leadership, has transformed itself into a welcoming and supportive Academy, with a relentless determination to provide the very best education for every child.  They aim to place students at the centre of everything they do, with a focus on creating a culture of success and a positive climate for learning. 

The IQM assessor met with a parent of two current year 7 students who had been supported through the transition programme last year.  It was wonderful to see as nothing like this has happened in other schools that the assessor has experienced.  The school has an open-door policy for all.  The twins attended an extra transition day (due to one with anxiety and the other transgender).  Due to the students having different academic abilities, they would in all likelihood be set into different academic classes.  Small numbers of children were brought in after the start of the day and experienced a very nurturing day which inflated their confidence for the second transition visit.  She spoke highly of the informal nibbles and natter evening which helped make for a relaxed and calm evening which helped build trust between the parents, carers and staff.  She felt that this opportunity to share key information, put names to faces and reduce her own anxiety for her children was very beneficial. She felt reassured and supported.  This was followed up with a further meeting just before the summer holidays to double check that everything had been in place.  The relationships that the staff have made with both the parents and the students really works.  It has been honed to ensure that every student flourishes and achieves their potential.  

Last year, transition was moved back to start with year 5 in order to effectively give more time to integrate students into the year 7 curriculum.  The transition open evening is also extended to year 5 in order to develop early discoursing with parents before their selection of secondary school.  

Staff from OAF visit primary schools to look at how their curriculum is taught, build relationships with students and review the work of potential students.  This has led to supporting the weaker students in a more robust way to ensure that they have the support needed to flourish when they join Foxhills.  A full curriculum review has been led and resulted in changes including the Foxhills curriculum to ensure prior knowledge was accounted for and students could be accelerated without unnecessary repetition but still support those needing or having gaps in their learning. 

Art, Music and enrichment subject teachers have also been involved in the visits with the air of developing a love of culture and the wider curriculum with the aim of enthusing students to come to Foxhills. 

The Foxhills SENCO will have involvement with EHCP of incoming year 6 students in order to ensure continuity of provision from primary to secondary.  This is supported by the inclusion coordinator who visits every primary school to create a vulnerable student list in order to start planning the individual support programmes as soon as possible. 

Vulnerable students have an additional transition day before joining the new year 7 for a day put in place during the summer term on sports day so that following a morning of academic activities, they can join the existing student cohort to watch and celebrate the final events with their future peers. 

Post 16 transition is just as important in this school as primary and starts in year 10 with visits to the two local colleges for all students where they spend the day experiencing courses.  Careers meetings start with the SEN and Vulnerable students (who often require multiple meetings) before ensuring that every student gets a careers interview.  Future Colleges are invited to EHCP meetings.  Throughout year 11, employer and post 16 encounters are integrated into assemblies in order to ensure all students are aware of the full local offer.  

Read the full report on the IQM website.