St Mark’s West Essex Catholic School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Expectations of pupils at St Mark's are high. They celebrate their achievements and those of others.

They know how to behave well. Pupils are consistently respectful and polite.

Pupils are clear about what they are learning and why.

They value feedback given in lessons and routinely use this to help them improve their work.

Behaviour is calm and purposeful. Bullying rarely occurs.

If it does, pupils know that leaders will resolve it quickly. They are confident to share concerns regarding this with school staff.

Pupils enjoy a wide range of enrichment opportunities that link to the school's mission to ensure 'opportunities for all'.<...br/>
For example, pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) regularly win county boccia competitions.

While the sixth-form curriculum is in most cases as effective as that in the rest of the school, for a significant part of the independent study programme, the guidance, content and expectations are not clear enough. This results in sixth-form students not achieving as well as they should.

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

Leaders have reviewed the curriculum. They have put in place a curriculum that is well designed. Leaders are ambitious for all pupils to achieve well.

Leaders know that reading is important to ensure that pupils can access the full curriculum successfully. They have established a well-constructed programme to support the weakest readers. This helps these pupils to learn to read fluently and consequently to be able to access the curriculum across the school.

Teachers deliver the curriculum well. They are well trained and have strong subject knowledge. Teachers plan activities that help pupils build knowledge on prior learning.

Teachers spot misunderstandings quickly and correct these.

Leaders identify pupils with SEND accurately. They review appropriate information to plan effective support strategies for these pupils.

Teachers are knowledgeable about the needs of pupils with SEND. As a result, they are able to adapt activities and resources expertly and appropriately to meet pupils' needs well, for example by using specialist balls with bells inside them in physical education (PE). Pupils with SEND feel that they are well supported in lessons.

The expectations for how well sixth-form students will achieve do not consistently reflect the expectations in place throughout the rest of the school. For the most part, leaders have planned a curriculum that enables the delivery of key subject knowledge. However, the independent study programme that runs parallel with taught sessions is not planned well enough.

It does not complement students' class delivery, and therefore sixth-form students do not build up the skills and knowledge they need sufficiently to achieve well in the subjects they study. Furthermore, sixth-form students are not always clear about what they need to do to improve.

Following the pandemic, sixth-form attendance is low.

Additionally, sixth-form students' attendance is not as rigorously monitored as it is for other pupils in the school. When students miss school, it is unclear how they are helped to catch up. This is because leaders' approaches and expectations are inconsistent.

As a result, attendance is not closely checked, and students do not achieve as well as they could.

Leaders have implemented a clear behaviour policy that all staff understand and apply consistently. They address any low-level disruption quickly.

As a result, pupils understand what is expected of them and behave appropriately. Being polite, respectful and empathetic are everyday, typical behaviours for pupils at the school.

Leaders have prioritised pupils' wider development.

There is a well-considered curriculum for personal, social, health and economic education. Pupils state that everyone should be treated the same, and differences should be celebrated. There is a culture of understanding of others.

This is reflected in the interactions pupils have with each other.

There is a range of careers events and opportunities available. Work experience and encounters with employers are appropriate, including in the sixth form.

High numbers of pupils remain in education or enter employment after Year 11 and Year 13.

Staff value the actions leaders have taken to reduce staff workload. This enables staff to focus on teaching.

Governors hold school leaders to account. They ensure that leaders seek external advice to check and validate decisions that are being made, for example in the recent use of the local authority school effectiveness adviser to review the mathematics curriculum.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders' agreed systems for safeguarding are thorough. Staff are well trained and know how to log incidents and concerns. Leaders follow these up in a timely manner.

They secure the help of appropriate agencies for vulnerable pupils. Leaders are tenacious when supporting pupils to ensure that pupils' needs are met.

Pupils learn a lot about how to stay safe, including when online.

Leaders ensure that training covers risks that are relevant to the local context. For example, training covers how to identify concerns regarding county lines. Those responsible for recruitment checks on staff are meticulous in their approach.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Leaders have not considered carefully enough the whole-curriculum provision for sixth-form students. Expectations of what students should be doing when not being directly taught are unclear. This leads to students spending time in school not learning.

Leaders need to ensure that they put in place well-thought-through curriculum provision that supplements appropriately the teaching students receive in class. ? The processes for monitoring the attendance and progress of sixth-form students who miss school are not effective. The work of form tutors and sixth-form leaders is inconsistent.

There are no clear systems in place to ensure that when students miss school, they have the opportunity to catch up with their learning. This results in low attendance and students not being clear about the next steps they should take to improve. Leaders should consider what systems are required to ensure that staff understand and are well trained in how to check on students' academic progress if they are absent, and equally are able to improve the attendance of students so they do not miss their learning.