The Mountbatten School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

The Mountbatten School continues to be a good school.

The headteacher of this school is Andrew Portas. This school is part of The Mountbatten School trust, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school.

The trust is run by the chief executive officer, Heather McIlroy, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Paul Urben.

What is it like to attend this school?

The school offers a warm, caring community in which pupils flourish. Pupils value how staff want them to aspire to perform beyond their own expectations, both academically and in their personal development.

Most pupils thoroughly enjoy their learning and the many ...extra-curricular opportunities on offer. One parent echoed the views of many by reflecting, 'My children are thriving here, taking part in everything on offer, and so they are progressing both academically and as people. Thank you, Mountbatten!'

There are high expectations for pupils across the school.

The dedicated team of staff ensures that pupils benefit from strong teaching. Learning is enriched through a huge number of clubs, experiences and trips. Pupils immerse themselves in all that the curriculum offers.

They become confident and cooperative learners. Over time, they achieve well and develop leadership, resilience and independent learning skills that equip them well for the future.

The 'Mountbatten 3D Curriculum' nurtures positive attitudes towards learning and encourages pupils to be caring, respectful and to achieve.

The first-class leadership of pastoral care and well-being underpins the exceptionally safe and inclusive learning environment. Positive relationships ensure that pupils feel very well supported and secure. In turn, pupils' good humour, considerate behaviour and respectful manners make The Mountbatten School a special place to be.

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

An ambitious, broad curriculum enables pupils to achieve well. The number of pupils undertaking the English Baccalaureate is comparatively low. The school has taken steps to address this while also ensuring that pupils can choose from a wide range of artistic, technical and creative GCSEs and vocational options.

Well-planned careers education and advice ensures that pupils are well prepared for their next steps in education or employment.

The careful design of the curriculum ensures that pupils build knowledge and skills from Year 7 to Year 11 across subjects. Most teachers check pupils' prior understanding well before explaining new subject matter effectively.

However, some teachers' skills in these areas are less well developed. Consequently, sometimes, pupils can become disengaged from their learning, which affects how well they achieve. The school has refined its systems for checking pupils' reading skills.

Priority is given to ensuring that pupils get the specific support they need to be able to read confidently.

Pupils respond to teachers' high expectations by producing work of a good standard overall. The school is committed to ensuring that all pupils can be successful, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and other disadvantaged pupils.

Leaders are aware that the achievement of these groups has not been as strong as that of their peers in the past. Most teachers adapt their teaching well to meet the needs of these pupils. However, this could be more consistently effective.

The school is rightly prioritising further training to ensure that all teachers are equally adept at addressing any gaps in knowledge that these pupils may have.

The school's effective actions have led to significant improvements in pupils' attendance rates over the last year. Although there was a rise in suspensions last year, these have now dropped dramatically.

This demonstrates the school's effective approach to tackling any prejudicial behaviour among pupils. Pupils and parents told inspectors that they really value the school's strong approach to promoting equality.

Provision for pupils' personal development is first class.

The impressive relationships and sex education and health education curriculum covers personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education and incorporates local contextual issues well. Pupils have ample opportunities to learn how to keep themselves physically and mentally healthy and safe. Similarly, being an 'international school' supports promoting respect for different cultures, languages and religions.

Dedicated staff offer a variety of regular clubs, as well as interesting trips, competitions and events each year. Pupils enthuse about the achievements of the school bands in national competitions and the chances to take on a variety of leadership roles.

The school considers the workload and well-being of staff carefully and provides opportunities for staff to be involved in any changes.

Most teachers and support staff report feeling well supported.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Some teachers do not adapt their teaching to meet the needs of all pupils as effectively as others do.

Where this is the case, a minority of pupils can miss key points. The school should ensure that all teachers can skilfully support all pupils, including those with SEND, in line with the best examples in school. ? The approaches of some teachers to assessing what pupils already know and can do need refinement.

As a result, some pupils do not get suitably challenging tasks and opportunities to deepen their thinking and knowledge. By building on the best practice, the school should increase staff expertise in this area further so that pupils achieve more highly.

Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good.

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 would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which 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 second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in March 2015.

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