Salendine Nook High School Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school Since the previous inspection, the headteacher has effectively driven improvements in the quality of teaching. As a result, pupils are now making good progress in most subjects. Senior and most middle leaders use pupils' performance information well to check carefully their progress, and provide additional help to any pupils falling behind.

Governors have improved their working practices, and show high ambitions for the school. They provide school leaders with a good balance of challenge and support, and are making a good contribution the school's continuous improvement. Teaching across the school is now good.

Generally, teachers prepare ...activities that motivate pupils, and help them make good progress. Pupils behave well in lessons and around school. The vast majority enjoy coming to school, attend regularly and are eager to learn.

Pupils feel safe in school and know how to keep themselves safe in different situations. The promotion of pupils' personal development and welfare is good. Pupils benefit from a wide range of visits, extra-curricular experiences and enterprise activities.

These opportunities underpin their good spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. It is not yet an outstanding school because : Outcomes in some subjects, including science, are not as strong as in the best-performing subjects. In a minority of lessons, mainly in science, teaching does not challenge all pupils to learn well, especially the most able.

This slows their learning. Gaps in the progress made between disadvantaged pupils and their peers, in some years, have still not closed sufficiently in mathematics. Some middle leaders do not always hold their colleagues to account with enough rigour to ensure that pupils make consistently at least good progress.

Information about this school

Salendine Nook High School is a larger than average-sized secondary school. The majority of pupils are of White British heritage, although the proportion of minority ethnic children is above the national average. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is broadly average.

The proportion of disadvantaged pupils who are supported through the pupil premium is below the national average. The pupil premium is additional government funding to support those pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and those looked after by the local authority. The proportion of pupils with special educational needs is below average.

The proportion of pupils with a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care plan, is in line with the national average. The school meets the government's current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils' attainment and progress. A very small minority of pupils in Years 10 and 11 are educated at Ethos and New Directions Colleges, Kirklees, education and training providers for young people experiencing difficulties in mainstream settings.

In addition, a very small minority of pupils follow part-time work-experience courses at Nexus, Kirklees. The school is a member of the Pennine Teaching School Alliance, and receives support to develop the quality of teaching, learning and assessment, and expertise in middle leadership. Since the previous inspection, there have been changes in the senior leadership team and the membership of the governing body.