Fairfield High School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school. The headteacher provides the school with outstanding leadership; she is supported well by other leaders. Senior leaders and the governing body have an accurate view of the school's strengths and priorities for improvement.

The governing body holds senior leaders to account well. Students' achievement, behaviour and attendance, and the quality of teaching, have improved over the four years since the headteacher joined the school, and markedly in the last two years. Students' achievement is good overall and is outstanding in English.

It has improved significantly in mathematics to be close to that in English. Achievement is also strong in ...a range of other subjects. A small proportion of teaching, particularly in science, requires improvement and inhibits the progress made by students in these lessons.

Students' progress is monitored extremely carefully and well-targeted support is provided where necessary. In some subjects, the contact made with parents to support the progress of students, and to praise them when they do well, is outstanding. Students' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is outstanding.

The school is extremely harmonious with students from a very wide range of backgrounds working well together and showing great respect for each other. The range of subjects offered is reviewed regularly to ensure it meets the needs of students well and to improve attendance and behaviour and raise achievement. The school makes excellent use of a wide range of partnerships to support students' achievement and personal development.

The school's involvement with the local and wider community is impressive. It is not yet an outstanding school because : Students' achievements in some subjects, particularly in science, are not as good as in others. A small proportion of teaching requires improvement to raise students' achievements further.

Information about this school

Fairfield High School is a smaller-than-average-sized secondary school. The proportion of disabled students and those who have special educational needs supported through school action is much higher than average. The proportion supported at school action plus, or with a statement of special educational needs, is below the national average.

The overall proportion of students known to be eligible for the pupil premium (additional government funding for children looked after by the local authority, those eligible for free school meals and children whose parents are currently serving in the armed forces) is almost double the national average. Around half of the students in the school are known to be eligible for free school meals. The proportion of students from minority ethnic groups and the proportion whose first language is not English are both around three times the national average.

A much larger than usual number of students enters the school during the school year and/or part way through their secondary education. The school deprivation indicator (a measure of the social and economic deprivation in the area served by the school) is much higher than average. Previous plans to convert to an academy stalled, but plans to form a trust with a local academy and partner primary schools are well under way, with the intention of the school becoming an academy before January 2014.

Elmfield Secondary School for the Deaf is located within the school premises. While this is a separate school, many of the students attend lessons at Fairfield. The school meets the government's current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for students' attainment and progress.