St George’s Catholic School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is an outstanding school. The executive headteacher, governors and other school leaders have the highest of expectations for all students. They are determined to support them in every way possible so that all can achieve extremely well.

The strong Catholic ethos is at the heart of everything the school does. This contributes to the strong sense of community, moral purpose and care and respect for each individual. The curriculum provides a good range of options to meet the different needs of the students.

An exceptionally wide range of extra classes help students to develop their skills and interests. Activities that take place beyond the school day contri...bute to students' exceptional spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Behaviour in lessons and around the school is exemplary.

Students are respectful and courteous to each other and to adults. No learning time is wasted in managing poor behaviour. Students take pride in their work and in their school.

They enjoy school and attend regularly.They feel very safe at all times. The quality of teaching is outstanding.

Teachers challenge and motivate students. They insist they should always push themselves to continue to improve. From low starting points students make outstanding progress.

The standards they achieve in their GCSE examinations are well above average. Unvalidated results in 2014 show that the percentage achieving five or more good passes, including English and mathematics, rose significantly. Students of all abilities and from different backgrounds including those who are disadvantaged, make rapid progress in many subjects.

These include English and mathematics. The sixth form is very new because until September 2014 sixth formers were on the roll of St Thomas More Catholic School. Many aspects of the provision at St George's, including leadership, guidance and teaching are very strong.

Students are making very good progress on their courses.

Information about this school

The school is smaller than the average-sized secondary school. The school converted to academy status on March 2013 as part of a multi-academy trust with St Thomas More Catholic School.

When its predecessor school, also called St George's Catholic School, was last inspected by Ofsted in 2010 it was judged to be outstanding overall. From September 2011 students from St George's School were taught at the school in the sixth form.They were on the roll of St Thomas More Catholic School and so their results belonged to that school.

The school successfully applied to the DfE for permission to open its own sixth form from September 2014. The 140 students in the sixth form are now on the roll of St George's and led and managed by the school governors. Well over half of the students are supported by the additional government funding.

This is provided for students known to be eligible for free school or who are looked after by the local authority. The proportion of students who speak English as an additional language is much higher than average. A small proportion of these are at the early stages of learning English.

The proportion of disabled students and those who have special educational needs is much higher than average. A high proportion of students are from minority ethnic groups. The largest groups are from White British background, any other White background and African heritages.

About 20 students are supported through the Year 7 catch-up funding which is for students who did not attain Level 4 in English or mathematics at the end of primary school. The proportion of students joining or leaving the school at other than the normal time is higher than average. A very small number of students in Year 10 attend work-related courses at the College of North West London for part of the week.

The executive headteacher is a national leader of education (NLE). He is also executive headteacher of St Thomas More Catholic School and acting headteacher of Bishop Douglass School. The school meets the government's current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for students' progress and attainment.