Borden Grammar School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school. All staff share the headteacher's ambitious vision which focuses on the achievement of every student within a highly supportive and harmonious community.

Supported by good leadership and management, students' achievement is good and improving because of good and improving teaching. Parents, staff and students are exceptionally positive about the standards of behaviour and safety in the school. Students arrive at their lessons hungry to learn and engage enthusiastically with classroom activities.

Relationships between teachers and students are very positive and help to promote high quality learning. The school's leaders, including the gov...ernors, know their school well and what needs to be done to improve it still further. The school's curriculum is broad and balanced and it is successful in meeting the needs and aspirations of all students.

This helps the students to enjoy their learning, appreciate its relevance and achieve well. The school provides its students with excellent cultural and sporting opportunities. The sixth form is good; its students serve as excellent role models to younger students in the school.

Students' achievement in the sixth form is good. It is not yet an outstanding school because : In mathematics, not all students make the best possible progress from their starting points. Some teachers do not use marking or questioning as effectively as they could and this means that in some lessons students do not always make good progress.

Some teachers do not make the best use of the information about students' progress to plan their lessons. As a result, activities and expectations are sometimes not hard enough, particularly in mathematics.

Information about this school

This is a smaller-than-average-size secondary school.

The school selects from the top 25% of boys by ability using the Kent test to determine admission into Year 7. Borden Grammar School converted to become an academy in January 2012. When its predecessor school, also Borden Grammar School, was last inspected by Ofsted it was judged to be good.

The school's headteacher has been in post since September 2013. The school has a specialism in sport and a second specialism in modern languages. Approximately one in ten of the school's population is eligible for the pupil premium, which is additional funding provided for children in local authority care, children of service families and those known to be eligible for free school meals.

This proportion is about a third of the national average. There are no children from service families currently on the school's roll. There are no students eligible for the Year 7 catch-up premium, which is provided by the government to support those students who have not previously reached the expected levels in English and mathematics.

Approximately one in nine students is from a minority ethnic group, which is below the national average. A little over 10% of students are disabled or have special educational needs and are supported through school action, this proportion is a little below the national average. A little under 4% of students are supported at school action plus or have a statement of special educational needs, which is about half the national average.

Some additional AS- and A-level courses are taken by sixth form students at Fulston Manor School and Highsted Grammar School. This is so that these students can follow courses that are of particular interest or relevance to them. The school meets the government's current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for students' attainment and progress.