Ofsted inspectors visited our school to carry out an inspection on 25 January 2017
We are delighted that the school achieved an ‘OUTSTANDING’ result.
Quotes from the report
- Pupils who attend the school have a broad range of abilities. Many have a very high level of need. The school takes a bespoke approach to meeting pupils’ individual needs. For example, pupils are grouped within their phase according to their ability and individual needs. This ensures that all groups, including the more able, make good and better progress over time. This is clearly evidenced by the many and varied qualifications and accreditations achieved by pupils.
- Pupils enjoy a wide and varied curriculum which is regularly enriched by visitors and visits away from school. Pupils have many opportunities to develop their skills in dance and drama, for example. Pupils have taken part in a range of dance events and some have performed with a nationally acclaimed dance group. Staff leaders and governors were particularly pleased when pupils recently publicly performed scenes from Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’ as part of Sheffield schools’ Shakespeare festival.
- Experiences such as these enable pupils to develop their self-esteem, self-worth and confidence in their ability to succeed in school and beyond.
- The previous inspection report asked school leaders to provide more opportunities for pupils to judge how well they have learned and how to improve their work. Discussions with more able pupils about their work demonstrated clearly that they knew what they had learned and through the use of icons, such as smiley faces, could feed back whether they had understood.
- Pupils’ reading skills are well developed and many are keen to improve them further. School leaders recognise this and have ensured ready access to the wellstocked school library, often at breaks and lunchtime. School data clearly shows that pupils make very strong progress in reading and this has also improved pupils’ writing skills.
- Whole-school mathematics days enable pupils across the school to develop a better understanding of how to use the skills they have learned to solve practical problems. Pupils’ infectious enthusiasm for learning can clearly be seen in all that they do and work in pupils’ books shows that they make equally strong progress in mathematics and English.
- Many pupils have medical needs. Some spend long periods of time in hospital. This can impact on their attendance levels. However, a very small number of pupils do not have medical needs but still have lower attendance levels. School leaders are aware of this and have recently begun to work with an attendance officer. However, the impact of this work has yet to be felt and, while overall attendance is close to the national average for secondary schools, further improvement is possible.