Sir Graham Balfour High School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school.

Achievement has risen strongly since the previous inspection. Standards at the end of Year 11 are above average. Students greatly enjoy their learning and make good progress.

Most teaching is now good with much that is outstanding. Students say lessons are fun and they value the way teachers give so much of their time to help and support them. Behaviour in lessons is exemplary.

Students show great enthusiasm and are often totally engrossed in the tasks that are set for them. Behaviour around school is calm and orderly with students showing courtesy to each other and adults. They say that mixed-age tutor groups enable them to fee...l part of an extended family.

Students say that they feel very safe and that they are well cared-for. They have a very good understanding of how to keep themselves safe. Procedures to tackle prejudice of any kind are extremely effective.

The sixth form is good and improving. Sixth form leadership is outstanding and achievement is rising strongly. The headteacher is very well supported by his senior team.

They are relentless in their drive to raise the quality of teaching and student progress and ensure the wellbeing of all. Leaders have secured improvement in all aspects of the school's work since the previous inspection and have a strong capacity to improve further. It is not yet an outstanding school because : Not all teaching is consistently good.

In some lessons, high attaining students are not sufficiently stretched. Progress is not as rapid in English as it is in mathematics. Teachers do not consistently ensure that students respond to the advice they are given on how to improve their work.

Governors' procedures to seek the views of parents are not sufficiently systematic or rigorous.

Information about this school

The school is an average-sized secondary school. Most students are White British.

The proportion of students from minority ethnic heritages is below average. Very few students speak English as an additional language. The proportion of disabled students and those who have special educational needs supported through school action is above average.

The proportion supported at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is below average. The proportion of students for whom the school receives the pupil premium, which provides additional funding for students in local authority care and those known to be eligible for free school meals, is average. Full-time off-site alternative courses provided by the Hollies are followed by six students.

The school meets the government's floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for students' attainment and progress. The sixth form is part of the Stafford Collegiate consortium. The school works closely with other local schools, particularly Walton High School.