Heworth Grange School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils at the school are polite, friendly and respectful.

The school cares for its pupils. It provides them with effective pastoral support. It also works with parents and carers to remove barriers to pupils' success.

This is a welcoming school in which pupils are safe and feel valued.

The school has high expectations for what pupils can achieve, both at school and in their future lives and careers. Some pupils realise these high expectations.

However, pupils in key stage 4 have not experienced a consistently effective curriculum. Some pupils have high levels of absence. This means that some pupils have fundamental gaps in their knowledge.

T...his limits what they can achieve.

Most pupils behave well. They work hard in lessons and conduct themselves in a calm and sensible manner.

However, the behaviour of some pupils can be disruptive. The school deals with poor behaviour well. This minimises its impact on the learning of other pupils.

The school prioritises pupils' personal development. Pupils enjoy a wide range of clubs and activities. They benefit from educational visits.

They discuss and debate important issues that affect their lives. Indeed, the school prepares pupils well for life in modern Britain.

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

The school is working in a context that provides significant challenge.

It is experiencing the ongoing impact of the pandemic. This impact is most evident in regard to attendance and pupils' social, emotional and mental health needs.The school has developed a broad and ambitious curriculum.

The curriculum is designed to build pupils' knowledge and skills in a logical manner. However, key stage 4 pupils have only benefitted from this curriculum in the last few years. Some pupils did not secure essential subject knowledge during key stage 3.

The school is adapting the curriculum to meet these pupils' needs.All pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), access the same curriculum. The school identifies and meets the needs of pupils with SEND well.

Pupils at an early stage of reading get the extra help that they need. This helps them to catch up with their peers and become confident and fluent readers.Teachers revisit what pupils have learned before and build on that learning.

They check pupils' understanding and give pupils the help they need to improve the quality of their work. However, sometimes teachers do not adapt their teaching well enough. Some pu-pils need more time to secure their knowledge before moving onto the next stage of learning.

The school has recently strengthened its work to improve pupils' attendance. It analyses attendance data carefully to inform a rigorous improvement strategy. This strategy includes work with pupils and their families to remove barriers to regular attendance.

However, despite this work, levels of absence and persistent absence remain high.The school has established high expectations of pupils' behaviour. It is developing a culture in which there are positive relationships between pupils.

The school does not tolerate disruption to lessons. When such disruption occurs, staff deal with it effectively. The behaviour of most pupils meets the school's high expectations.

However, there is a significant minority of pupils whose behaviour is persistently disruptive.The school has established a comprehensive personal development programme. Pupils learn about healthy relationships, and equality and diversity.

They learn how to keep themselves safe, including online. Pupils benefit from high-quality careers education and guidance including a wide range of visits from education and training providers.The trust provides effective support for the school.

It provides the school with additional leadership capacity and continuing professional development. This is helping the school to improve its education provision. Trustees carry out their responsibilities with appropriate rigour.

They hold the school to account and provide clear strategic direction. Staff enjoy working at the school. The school prioritises staff workload and well-being.

It values its staff highly.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Sometimes, teachers do not adapt their teaching with sufficient expertise.

This results in some pupils not securing foundational subject knowledge and other pupils not getting the opportunity to deepen and extend their learning. The school should ensure that it provides teachers with the professional development they need, both in pedagogy and pedagogical content knowledge, to secure, deepen and extend pupils' learning. ? Levels of absence and persistent absence are high, particularly for disadvantaged pupils.

This means that a significant number of pupils are missing too much of their education. It also means that by the end of key stage 4, these pupils do not have the knowledge and understanding they need to achieve well in their examinations. The school should ensure that it sustains its rigorous approach to improving pupils' attendance.

• The behaviour of a significant minority of pupils is persistently disruptive. This means that these pupils miss too much of their education through being suspended from school. This affects their ability to achieve well.

Also, the behaviour of these pupils sometimes disrupts the learning of other pupils. The school should ensure that it improves the consistency with which teachers manage pupils' behaviour. It should also ensure that it provides pupils with the support that they need to improve their behaviour.