Ofsted

The School was inspected by OFSTED in October 1999.

Main Findings

What the school does well

· Monitors, evaluates and supports the overall good quality of teaching and learning so that students make good progress and improve their standards;

· Headteacher provides very good leadership and has the full support of governors and staff in seeking to raise standards further;

· Provides very good support for students with English as an additional language so that they quickly achieve good standards in their schoolwork;

· Has a very good professional development programme enabling teachers to extend their range of strategies in the classroom to support students’ attainment and progress;

· Makes very good provision for students’ support, guidance and welfare;

· Has strong links with the local community and communicates well with parents;

· Financial planning is good.

Where the school has weaknesses

I. Basic writing skills (including sentence construction, spelling and punctuation) and

presentation of work is below national expectations for many students;

II. Boys’ standards fall below that of girls by a large margin;

III. Attendance rates are unsatisfactory and below 90 per cent.

The school has more strengths than weaknesses. The governors’ action plan will set out how the weaknesses identified during the inspection are to be tackled. The plan will be sent to all parents or guardians of students at the school.