All Saints’ Catholic High School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

All Saints' Catholic High School continues to be a good school.

The headteacher of this school is Sean Pender. This school is part of St Clare Catholic Multi Academy Trust, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school. The trust is run by the chief executive officer, Steve Davies, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Kevin Smith.

What is it like to attend this school?

A strong ethos of warmth and respect pervades this school. Opportunities are taken to reinforce this throughout all aspects of school life. Most pupils feel happy and safe.

Bullying is rare and quickly dealt with if it occurs. Pupils have caring relationship...s with staff and trust them if they need help.

Pupils show respect towards each other and adults.

They are taught about Christian values and inclusivity. In the words of one pupil, speaking on behalf of many others, 'Everyone is accepted here.' Pupils learn about dangers such as online grooming and how to keep themselves safe.

They enjoy a wide range of clubs, hobbies and sporting activities, such as basketball and boxercise. Older pupils are encouraged to support younger pupils at the school.

The school has ambition for all pupils, including the most vulnerable, to achieve their potential.

Pupils in key stage 4 and students in the sixth form study a wide range of courses that prepare them well for the future. New teaching strategies are being introduced to improve the progress that pupils make, and these are beginning to have impact. The school recognises that there is still more work to do to improve pupil outcomes further and embed new strategies and procedures.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

The school has a great deal of ambition for young people. The school provides a curriculum that offers many different courses and opportunities at key stage 4 and key stage 5. The curriculum is designed to ensure that as many pupils as possible study the English Baccalaureate set of subjects.

Pupils are prepared for the rigour of academic qualifications throughout each key stage. In most subjects, curriculum plans are well developed and logically sequenced. However, the depth to which pupils are exposed in some topics in key stage 3 is variable.

In a small number of subjects that become optional at key stage 4, pupils stop their learning in Year 8. Where this happens, they have limited time to study some topics in sufficient depth.

The curriculum is delivered by enthusiastic and knowledgeable teachers.

Teachers receive training in how to adapt their teaching to meet the needs of all pupils. For example, concepts are broken into small chunks, and modelling is used to make new ideas easier for pupils to understand. However, some teaching strategies are newly introduced and are not consistently delivered across all lessons or key stages.

Pupil outcomes are continuing to improve in GCSEs and other qualifications at the end of Year 11. The school is also strengthening the delivery of the curriculum in the sixth form.

The needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are prioritised.

New leadership of SEND provision has accurately identified improvements that need to be made. There are early signs that new strategies are having an impact. Many pupils with SEND feel well supported.

For example, a pupil explained to an inspector how support from the school has helped them overcome their emotional difficulties to an extent that they can now support younger pupils with similar problems.

Reading is a strength of the school. Pupils who struggle to read are quicky identified and provided with a range of interventions.

As a result, they make rapid progress. Sixth-form students are provided with training and they assist younger pupils with reading interventions.

Most pupils behave well in lessons and as they move around the school.

They are considerate and polite to each other and to adults. Very occasionally, some low-level disruption occurs in some lessons, but this is rare. Bullying is also rare, but dealt with quickly when it occurs.

Pupils benefit from a strong programme of personal development. They receive regular lessons, tutorials and assemblies that address themes such as healthy relationships, drug misuse, consent and misogyny. Most pupils remember what they have been taught.

Pupils have opportunities to engage in a wide range of clubs and activities, such as debating, sewing, Lego construction and the Chemistry Olympiad.

Pupils have opportunities to visit universities, employers and training providers in order to consider their next steps. In some cases, the timing of career experiences could be improved.

This would ensure that pupils are well briefed before making subject option decisions.

Students in the sixth form can study courses from a broad programme that has been recently redeveloped to meet their needs and ambitions. They are educated about pertinent themes that are appropriate to their age, such as consent.

They are also encouraged to take up leadership positions at the school, such as becoming a prefect or supporting younger pupils in the school.

Governors provide effective challenge to senior leaders and hold them to account for improving the school. Where there needs to be a keen focus of development, the school has provided appropriate leadership to bring about improvement.

The trust has taken over many financial and site management responsibilities, ensuring that governors and senior leaders are free to concentrate on school improvement. The school now needs to ensure that there is rigorous quality assurance of school improvement initiatives that have been recently introduced.

Staff talk of a sense of 'family' and have loyalty towards the school.

Staff feel that although workload can be challenging at times, they are generally well supported by leaders.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In optional subjects, pupils may choose to discontinue their study at the end of Year 8.

In some cases, this results in pupils studying curriculum subjects in less depth during key stage 3. The school should ensure that the curriculum provides consistent depth of coverage across different subjects throughout key stage 3. ? New pedagogical methods that help pupils to know and remember more are not yet fully refined or embedded across the curriculum.

This means that some pupils do not consistently retain the knowledge needed to make good progress. The school should further develop and embed pedagogical methods that help pupils retain information and form links between different topics. ? The school has introduced several new systems, processes and initiatives to improve the quality of education and wider aspects of the curriculum.

Methods of assuring leaders of impact are not yet fully developed. The school should ensure that rigorous quality assurance procedures are embedded to support leaders to monitor the impact of these changes.

Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good.

This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.This is the second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in March 2014.

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