The Lakes School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

The Lakes School has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

What is it like to attend this school?

The school is warm and welcoming.

Pupils feel well cared for and supported. They enjoy opportunities to contribute to all aspects of school life. Pupils are happy and enjoy school.

Pupils, including students in the sixth form, forge positive relationships with their peers and staff. Most pupils are motivated to learn. They display positive conduct in lessons and during social times.

This helps the school to promote a calm and purposeful culture for learning.

The school sets high expectations for pupils' achiev...ement. Typically, pupils achieve well.

They benefit from a well-designed curriculum which prepares them for their next stage in life.

Pupils and students value their extra-curricular programme. For instance, pupils relish taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme, arts club and sporting activities.

They take pleasure in holding positions of responsibility such as charity committee members and school councillors. These opportunities help pupils to build their confidence and self-esteem.

Pupils embrace activities that help them to expand their skills and their understanding of the wider world.

For example, some pupils enjoy taking part in international trips, theatre and gallery visits as well as outdoor adventures such as kayaking.

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

The school ensures that pupils have access to an ambitious curriculum. It has logically mapped out the key knowledge that it wants pupils to learn from key stage 3 to key stage 5.

Staff know what they need to teach and when they should teach it.

Teachers use their strong subject expertise to explain subject content clearly. In most subjects, teachers systematically check pupils' knowledge.

This helps teachers to refine their delivery of the curriculum so that pupils learn all that is intended. However, in other subjects, this is done less effectively. At times, some teachers do not adapt their activities to ensure that pupils move on to new learning once they are ready.

This hampers how well some pupils build on their knowledge over time.

The school has effective systems in place to identify the additional needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The small number of pupils who attend the specially resourced provision for pupils with SEND (specially resourced provision) are supported well to access their learning.

As a result, most pupils with SEND achieve as well as they should.

The school has prioritised reading. Staff offer suitable support to pupils who struggle to read.

Most pupils benefit from a broad range of strategies that helps them to develop a love of reading. For instance, sixth form reading buddies support younger pupils to become competent and confident readers.

The school ensures that pupils live up to the high expectations of their conduct.

Recently, the school has improved how it supports pupils who struggle to follow the school rules and routines. Such work has ensured that learning is rarely disrupted by poor behaviour. Many strategies that the school is using to help raise pupils' attendance rates are effective.

Even so, the absence rate for a small minority of pupils remains stubbornly high. As a result, these pupils miss vital learning which hampers how well they achieve.

The school has a strong programme to promote pupils' wider development.

Pupils are given ample opportunities to learn about different faiths. This helps pupils to establish an appreciation of differences between people. Pupils develop a secure awareness of how to avoid risks in harmful relationships.

For example, they understand the signs of grooming. Pupils benefit from high-quality careers guidance. They visit universities and take part in employer workshops to broaden their understanding of different career pathways.

Such activities guide pupils well for their next stage in education, employment and/or training.

Governors are suitably informed about the key strengths and areas for development across the school. They support and challenge the school well.

This helps the school to ensure that decisive and appropriate improvement work is carried out. Most staff appreciate the support that is provided by the school. They feel that changes are manageable to implement.

This helps with their well-being and workload. Staff are motivated to improve their practices so that pupils can thrive.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In a few subjects, some staff do not check pupils' learning as well as they could. This hampers how well some pupils build on their knowledge over time. The school should ensure that staff check that pupils understand the subject content well and use this information to adapt their teaching so that pupils achieve the best that they can.

• For a small minority of pupils, the school's efforts to remove barriers to regular attendance are not as effective as they could be. This means that some pupils continue to miss valuable learning time which hinders how well they achieve. The school should strengthen its support for these pupils and their families to help improve attendance rates.

Background

Until September 2024, on a graded (section 5) inspection we gave schools an overall effectiveness grade, in addition to the key and provision judgements. Overall effectiveness grades given before September 2024 will continue to be visible on school inspection reports and on Ofsted's website. From September 2024 graded inspections will not include an overall effectiveness grade.

This school was, before September 2024, judged to be good for its overall effectiveness.

We have now inspected the school to determine whether it has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at that previous inspection. This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school's work has improved significantly or that it may not be as strong as it was at the last inspection, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection. A graded inspection is carried out under section 5 of the Act.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

This is the first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good for overall effectiveness in November 2019.