South Wirral High School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils, and students in the sixth form, feel happy and safe at South Wirral High School. They are proud of their school. They appreciate their peers' friendship and the support and care that they receive from staff.

Senior leaders have successfully raised teachers' expectations of what pupils and students can achieve. Leaders ensure that pupils and students benefit from more ambitious subject curriculums than previously. Pupils and students succeed in their learning.

Leaders have established high expectations of pupils' and students' behaviour. In lessons, the overwhelming majority of pupils and students behave very well. Classrooms are calm.

Pupils and stude...nts listen carefully to their teachers and follow instructions quickly. Staff tackle any reported incidents of bullying swiftly and effectively.

The personal development curriculum provides pupils and students in the sixth form with plentiful opportunities to discuss topical issues relevant to their daily lives.

This helps them to develop their confidence and resilience. Pupils and students also benefit from a wide range of clubs and activities. For instance, pupils spoke enthusiastically about the debating society, eco club, diversity club and the Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme.

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

Leaders and governors have an ambitious vision for the school. They have created a well-considered academic curriculum. Most subject curriculums are suitably challenging for pupils and students, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

Leaders have an appropriate strategy to increase the proportion of pupils who study the modern foreign languages element of the English Baccalaureate.

From key stage 3 and into the sixth form, leaders have carefully selected the most important subject content that pupils and students should know. Leaders have organised content so that pupils and students can learn new and increasingly complex concepts securely as they move through the curriculum.

Teachers are well trained. They have the appropriate knowledge and expertise to deliver subject curriculums skilfully. Using the 'South Wirral Way', teachers provide pupils and students with opportunities to revisit and consolidate what they already know.

Teachers emphasise important aspects of learning, including essential vocabulary. They design learning activities that enable pupils and students to build up a rich body of knowledge. As a result, pupils and students achieve well.

For the most part, teachers use effective assessment strategies to check how well pupils and students know and remember important content. However, on occasion, some teachers do not act swiftly enough to identify and address pupils' misconceptions or knowledge deficits. This means that pupils and students sometimes move on to new learning too quickly.

Occasionally, pupils and students do not recall some important knowledge with confidence or ease. This prevents pupils and students from connecting some new learning with prior learning.

Leaders have comprehensive systems in place to accurately identify the needs of pupils and students with SEND.

Leaders provide teachers with the high-quality information that they need to appropriately support this group of pupils with their learning. That said, while staff have a secure understanding of these pupils' needs, a small number of teachers do not adapt their delivery of the curriculum sufficiently well to allow these pupils to learn as well as other pupils and students.

Leaders have strong systems in place to identify pupils who need help with their reading.

Leaders carefully check the deficits that some pupils have in their phonics knowledge. These pupils receive swift and targeted support from staff. This helps them to catch up quickly.

Eager to engage pupils in a love of reading, leaders have successfully introduced a range of initiatives. For example, 'book buzz' provides pupils with access to a wide range of engaging texts.

Pupils and students benefit from a strong personal development programme, including that for relationships and sex education and health education.

They learn about important aspects such as puberty, crime and how to keep themselves safe. Pupils and students are respectful of other cultures and religions. They accept others' differences.

The careers programme provides pupils and students with the knowledge that they need to make informed decisions around their next steps in education, employment and training.

During lessons, pupils and sixth-form students are attentive and behave very well. They are keen to learn.

However, in social times, a very small minority of pupils do not always behave as sensibly as they should.

The school has strengthened its governance arrangements. Governors understand their statutory duties well.

They carry them out diligently. They provide leaders with an appropriate balance of support and challenge.

Leaders are considerate of staff workload.

Staff morale is high. They appreciate the steps that leaders have taken to support them with their health and well-being.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

There is a strong safeguarding culture across the school. The safeguarding team receives appropriate training to ensure that their knowledge of local and national issues is up to date. Staff have a strong understanding of the potential risks that pupils and students may face in the local community.

Staff are confident in using the school's safeguarding systems. They know how to pass on any concerns quickly to leaders.

Pupils and students learn how to keep themselves safe through the curriculum.

For example, they learn about healthy relationships and sexual consent. Pupils and students feel able to get help if they have any worries or concerns.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Some teachers do not have sufficient expertise in checking whether pupils and students have learned the intended curriculum.

As a result, they do not spot or address pupils' and students' mistakes and misconceptions quickly enough. Leaders must ensure that they provide staff with high-quality training on how to effectively check pupils' learning. This is so that teachers can ensure that pupils' learning is secure before they are introduced to new content.

• Some teachers do not have a full enough understanding of how to make best use of the information that they receive from leaders to support pupils and students with SEND. This hinders some pupils and students with SEND from taking full advantage of important new learning in lessons. Leaders should ensure that teachers are sufficiently well trained to use the information that they receive to adapt their delivery of the curriculum to meet the needs of pupils with SEND.