Rutlish School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders have created a welcoming and aspirational culture. The focus on both academic rigour and personal development enables pupils to excel.

The school has extremely high expectations for pupils. This ensures all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), receive an exceptional education and achieve very highly.

Behaviour in the school is exemplary.

Pupils demonstrate great enthusiasm towards their education. They are friendly, polite and kind. Pupils are proud of their school community.

They are very well supported through strong working relationships with staff. This ensures pupils are safe in school.
<...br/>The development of pupils' character is a focus throughout the school.

There are a wide range of roles in the school for pupils to develop their leadership skills. These include the school council, 'learning leads' and charity ambassadors. Pupils have contributed to the school community in many ways through these roles, including raising money for charity, building a well-being garden and leading a Year 7 team building day.

Pupils take part in many clubs that develop their interests and talents. Alongside a range of sporting and creative clubs, many pupils also take part in the Duke of Edinburgh Award and the Combined Cadet Force.

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

The schools' curricular thinking is highly developed and ambitious.

Subject leaders have designed the curriculum to build pupils' knowledge progressively over time. This helps pupils to learn and remember new concepts quickly. Leaders' curricular thinking embeds subject-specific vocabulary, which pupils routinely use confidently.

The school identify and meet the needs of pupils with SEND highly effectively. Staff receive extensive training and use a range of strategies to ensure pupils with SEND achieve exceptionally well.

Teachers have strong subject knowledge and present information clearly.

They check for pupils' understanding systematically and address any misconceptions quickly. This supports pupils to produce work of extremely high quality. The school has developed precise systems to ensure any pupil who is falling behind in a subject is identified quickly and provided with appropriate support.

Pupils routinely perform extremely well in national examinations, including in the sixth form. Students in the sixth form achieve exceptionally well. The strategies that the school has put in place mean students studying vocational qualifications in the sixth form are now producing work of a similar exemplary standard to students studying A level qualifications.

The school identify pupils who struggle with reading and handwriting when they join the school. Staff identify pupils' individual needs and put in place bespoke support quickly. This ensures pupils make improvements to their reading fluency and confidence.

Staff have received effective training to ensure they make texts accessible to all pupils during lessons.Pupils are highly motivated and resilient. They consistently demonstrate excellent attitudes to their learning.

The attendance of pupils in school, including pupils with SEND, is high. Leaders work effectively with parents and carers to ensure that pupils attend school regularly.

The school's personal development curriculum has been carefully planned to ensure that pupils' knowledge and understanding deepens and builds over time.

Teachers support pupils to build an extensive understanding of relationships and how to keep themselves safe in an age-appropriate manner.

Pupils attend a wide range of trips and welcome external speakers to the school. Opportunities include subject-specific visits abroad and trips to historical and cultural landmarks.

These offer pupils a variety of experiences and broadens their cultural understanding. Students in the sixth form all take part in weekly enrichment activities that are designed to give them valuable skills to ensure they are ready for the next stage of their education.

The school provides pupils with purposeful careers advice and guidance.

Pupils take part in a range of activities including careers fairs and a variety of work-based opportunities. Students in the sixth form receive a great deal of support for future education and employment. This includes completing applications for university and apprenticeships.

The school has developed a very strong professional development programme for staff. It checks the quality of teaching and implementation of the curriculum in detail. This leads to sustained and continuous improvement in the quality of education.

Governors understand the strengths and priorities of the school. They have a clear strategic vision and provide appropriate challenge and support to leaders.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.