Richard Hale School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

Students at Richard Hale School achieve good outcomes in many aspects of their personal and academic development.

Standards reached in GCSE examinations are high, representing good progress from above-average starting points. Attendance is also high, behaviour is good and most feel very safe at school. These positive outcomes are a consequence of an appropriately robust academic curriculum where a large majority of students study three science subjects and a modern language at GCSE.

There are well-planned and successful vocational options, including in engineering, for the smaller number of students for whom these courses are appropriate. Good care, guidance and support, particularly through ...the house system, which is much valued by students, instil a tangible sense of self-discipline and pride in individual students and across the school as a whole. Teaching in the main school is good overall.

There is a good ethos of mutual respect in classrooms. Teachers manage lessons with authority; students work diligently and willingly in all subjects. All this helps students to achieve good grades at GCSE.

However, less time or emphasis is given to developing students' independent learning skills or engaging them in extended discussion, either with the teacher or with each other. This is a key reason why, overall, outcomes are good rather than outstanding. Students' oracy, an important skill for their future economic well-being, is not developed well enough.

These underdeveloped skills do not serve students well when they move into the sixth form – a key reason for their achievement dipping at AS level. While the most able and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well known to teachers, the extent to which these students' learning requirements are met through extended or supported work in lessons is too variable for assessment to be any better than satisfactory. Senior leadership has successfully maintained the school's distinctive ethos, which is much valued by parents and carers.

There is some particularly strong and incisive self-evaluation practice among middle leaders. Well-targeted actions brought improvements in the 2011 examination results, particularly in English and mathematics. Since the last inspection, a comprehensive strategy for monitoring and evaluating teaching has been led ably by an assistant headteacher and there is a good understanding of the issues that require improvement.

Joint lesson observations between inspectors and senior leaders resulted in complete agreement about the quality of teaching. However, in other areas of self-evaluation there is a lack of incisiveness; some management systems, including those for which the governing body is responsible (including safeguarding procedures) are not better than satisfactory and require a sharper approach if they are to be improved. Overall, improvements since the last inspection, and self-evaluation, suggest that there is good capacity for sustained improvement.

However, while it continues to provide good value for money, the school is not outstanding, as proposed in its self-evaluation.

Information about the school

Richard Hale School is an average-sized school of its type, with specialisms in science and applied learning. Around a third of students in the sixth form are girls.

Most students are White British, with others coming from various minority ethnic heritages. Very few speak English as an additional language. The proportion of students known to be eligible for free school meals is below average, as is the proportion with special educational needs and/or disabilities.