St Birinus School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Key findings

St Birinus is a good school. The headteacher, supported by an able and effective team of senior and middle leaders, has an ambitious vision for school improvement which is widely shared across the school.

Self-evaluation is rigorous and transparent, so that staff are highly reflective on how to improve their own practice and outcomes for students. A trend of rising attainment is therefore set to continue, reflecting the good learning and progress of current groups of students. Higher attainers make particularly good progress in English and mathematics.

Past weaknesses in the progress of those students in groups vulnerable to underachievement, including lower attainers, those known to be eligib...le for free school meals, disabled students and those who have special educational needs, have been overcome. Much clearer tracking of their progress, effective mentoring arrangements and improved curriculum arrangements have sharply improved the attainment and progress of students in these groups. Students' punctuality to school and to lessons is good and they behave very well around the school site.

Most students feel safe. Students' behaviour is good in the large majority of lessons. Students' attendance, however, has not shown a trend of improvement and has been broadly average since the last inspection.

In the very small minority of students with poor attendance records, the achievement of some is weak. Students are well taught by teachers who typically have high expectations and manage their classes effectively to ensure that learning proceeds at a swift pace. However, tasks are not always adapted to suit the different range of abilities in each class.

The quality and frequency of teachers' marking of students' work also varies widely. The sixth form is good. Partnership arrangements are well managed to ensure that students have access to a broad range of courses and achieve well.

Information about the school

The school is larger than the average-sized secondary school, educating boys from the town of Didcot and surrounding villages. Together with Didcot Girls' School, it jointly manages the Didcot Sixth Form College consortium, and sixth form students can follow courses on both schools' sites. Most students are White British.

The proportion of students known to be eligible for free school meals is below average. The proportion of disabled students and those who have special educational needs is broadly average. Their main needs relate to specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties or behavioural, social or emotional difficulties.

The school meets the current floor standard. The school is designated as a specialist language and technology college. The headteacher has been in post since September 2010 and the two deputy headteachers took up their posts in September 2011.