Saint John Houghton Catholic Voluntary Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school Senior leaders have responded positively to the weakness identified at the last inspection and the recommendations from the monitoring visit.

Their actions have begun to secure good leadership at all levels and effective teaching. They have been well supported by the executive headteacher. The St Ralph Sherwin Multi-Academy Trust (the trust) has provided the impetus, challenge and support to help the school to secure rapid improvements.

As a consequence, pupils' progress has improved and continues to do so in Year 10 and in key stage 3. Pastoral leadership is strong through the new house system. Pupils behave well in lessons and around th...e school site.

The broad and balanced curriculum reflects the needs of pupils. The leadership of teaching and learning is good. Middle leaders are consistently challenged by the leadership team.

They now have greater responsibility for the provision in their area. The quality of teaching has improved. Most teachers use strong subject knowledge to plan clear sequences of learning.

However, in some subjects, teachers give insufficient guidance for pupils in how to improve their work and provide fewer opportunities to work independently. This hinders the progress that pupils make. Pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development reflects the school's core ethos.

Pupils are confident and embrace the opportunity to offer service for the school and wider community. Leaders have worked hard to ensure that disadvantaged pupils make better progress. However, there are still some differences between the progress made by these pupils and other pupils nationally.

Safeguarding is effective. Pupils know how to keep safe; they have someone to talk to and feel supported. The new governing body, supported by the trust, has an accurate view of the strengths and weaknesses of the school.

Governors challenge and support leaders effectively.

Information about this school

This is a Roman Catholic voluntary-aided school. The school is part of the St Ralph Sherwin Multi-Academy Trust, founded in September 2018.

The majority of the pupils are White British. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is lower than the national average. The proportion of pupils with SEND is lower than the national average although the proportion of pupils entitled to an education, health and care plan is higher than the national average.