St John Fisher Catholic High School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

St John Fisher is a good school where students achieve well. Students show excellent standards of personal development and take full advantage of the many extra-curricular opportunities on offer, particularly in sport and the performing arts.

Good teaching and excellent care, guidance and support combine well so that students make good progress in their academic work. Students enter the school with attainment that is broadly average and reach levels of attainment at GCSE that are above average. Current students make good progress in lessons and the school's monitoring data show that the improved results in 2010 can be sustained.

Within this picture of above-average attainment, results in rece...nt years have varied more than would be expected, both from year to year and between subjects. The school demonstrates good capacity to improve. In addition to the improved results in 2010, when most subjects met challenging targets, the school met its agreed attendance targets.

Self-evaluation at all levels is accurate and the actions taken to address areas of weakness have had a clear impact. Since the last inspection, the use of data to monitor progress and target interventions has improved, as has the quality of support for students who are falling behind. The quality of care, guidance and support has also improved and is now outstanding.

The quality of teaching and learning is good because the teachers know the students well and promote high expectations of all. As a result, the students respect and appreciate their teachers, relationships are very good and behaviour is excellent. The students respond well to the range of learning activities that they face; they offer answers readily and work well whether individually or in groups.

In the lessons where progress is satisfactory rather than good, the teachers sometimes take insufficient account of prior knowledge and students of different abilities undertake the same tasks. On other occasions, the teachers miss opportunities to monitor the progress of individuals during lessons or to provide feedback on students' day-to-day work. Recent changes to the curriculum have addressed the need to provide a broad range of courses throughout the school.

For example, the students appreciate the opportunity to study three separate sciences and additional vocational options. The school has clear plans to develop the curriculum further and to evaluate the impact of recent changes, and these plans provide an appropriate focus for improving provision. The school's specialist status makes a strong contribution to provision and students' outcomes.

The students' achievements in the specialist subjects, particularly art and drama, are among the best in the school. The students meet challenging targets in their examinations and increasing numbers are opting to study subjects within the performing arts specialism. The specialism also helps the students to gain considerably in their personal development, such as when large numbers contribute to school productions.

Joint use of the school's facilities helps to strengthen links with the local community.

Information about the school

St John Fisher is a secondary school of average size, serving mainly the Roman Catholic communities of Wigan and the surrounding areas. The proportion of students with special educational needs and/or disabilities is below average, but the proportion with a statement of special educational needs is broadly average.

The proportion of students known to be eligible for free school meals is average. The proportion of students from minority ethnic groups is much lower than in most schools. The school has specialist status in performing arts, is a Leading Edge school and holds a number of awards, including a bronze award for Investors in People.