Hanley Castle High School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils at Hanley Castle High School benefit from an ambitious curriculum for all. Staff help pupils to develop their cultural understanding and think internationally. Pupils, including students in the sixth form, work hard and achieve well.

Leaders set high expectations for pupils' work and behaviour, and these expectations are met. Staff use praise well, and pupils benefit from a range of rewards and opportunities to celebrate success. Pupils recognise that staff want the best for them.

There are warm relationships between staff and pupils. Staff implement the behaviour policy fairly. These all contribute to pupils behaving well in lessons and at social times.
...r/>Pupils respect others, including those different from themselves. They are courteous to each other and to adults. Staff take bullying seriously and resolve it promptly.

Pupils know who to turn to, and they feel safe and happy.

Pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, take part in a wide range of extra-curricular clubs. These include sport and creative activities.

Pupils benefit from educational visits, including a sixth-form trip to Auschwitz. Pupils have opportunities to take up positions of responsibility, for example as college captains. Pupils regularly give their views on the school, and leaders act on what they say.

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

Leaders have planned a broad and ambitious curriculum. Subject leaders make sure that pupils' learning builds on what they already know. The majority of pupils follow a course leading to GCSEs in English, mathematics, modern foreign languages, humanities and science.

Pupils can choose from a wide variety of other academic and technical subjects at key stage 4 and in the sixth form.

Leaders identify those who enter the school with weaker reading skills. They provide these pupils with extra help, so that they catch up well.

Teachers ensure that pupils across the school read widely in different subjects.

Teachers have secure knowledge of the subjects they teach. They use this knowledge to deliver the curriculum effectively.

Teachers explain new ideas and concepts accurately and precisely so that pupils build their knowledge in manageable steps. They are skilled at deepening pupils' understanding. Teachers help pupils to remember what they have learned, for example by testing their recall at the start of the lesson, and to link new knowledge to it.

At key stage 3, leaders have introduced new ways for teachers to identify misconceptions in the classroom. These are generally working effectively, but some staff are not using them consistently well.

Staff are ambitious for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

Pupils with SEND follow the same curriculum as their peers, and learn well. Leaders identify their additional needs accurately, and provide clear guidance for staff on how best to meet them. Just occasionally, staff do not implement this guidance sharply enough.

Pupils develop a good understanding of personal safety, relationships and social issues as part of a well-planned personal development programme. They are taught about other cultures, for example through the curriculum in English and the humanities. The school maintains an active link with a school in Tanzania.

Pupils learn to respect different groups of people and their views. Leaders ensure that elections to posts, such as head student, teach pupils about the democratic process. This helps to give pupils the information and knowledge they need to be active local, national and global citizens.

Staff provide a good quality of pastoral care. Trained professionals provide effective support for pupils' mental health.

Students in the sixth form are proud of their school.

They receive prompt, precise feedback on their work that helps them to extend their knowledge. Students enjoy a particularly varied enrichment programme. Most choose to support younger pupils, for example with their work in lessons or by contributing to extra-curricular activities.

Pupils receive wide-ranging and impartial careers advice. They benefit from work experience, and staff provide additional careers opportunities for vulnerable groups of pupils. Students in the sixth form meet on an individual basis with a professional from a relevant field of work.

This means that pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education or employment.

Leaders know the school well. They have a keen desire to improve it further.

To this end, they have chosen to revisit areas of the curriculum and seek to work more closely with primary schools. Leaders make sure that staff are well trained for the jobs that they do. Less experienced staff receive effective support when they join the school.

Staff say that leaders take their workload into consideration.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Pupils learn about the risks that they may face, including those online.

Leaders make sure that staff are well trained in safeguarding, so that they know how to identify pupils who may be at risk. They keep staff updated about issues that might pose a threat. Leaders support those who are vulnerable with sensitivity and tenacity.

They work well with other agencies that protect children.

The school maintains the necessary safeguarding records. Leaders make the right checks on the staff who join the school.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Leaders have not ensured that all teachers use the school's new procedures for assessment in the classroom at key stage 3 consistently well. In these instances, teachers do not identify and address pupils' misconceptions and misunderstandings swiftly enough. Leaders should ensure that all teachers make regular and timely checks on pupils' knowledge, so that pupils learn the curriculum well and misconceptions are identified and addressed in a timely manner.

• Leaders have not ensured that all staff implement the guidance they provide on how best to meet the additional needs of pupils with SEND precisely enough. Occasionally, these pupils then lack the most effective support, and do not learn as well as they might. Leaders should make sure that all staff use the information about pupils with SEND effectively so that they can ensure that they learn well.