William Ellis School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy coming to this school.

It provides them with a sense of community where difference is accepted and equality valued. Sixth-form students study alongside students on roll at three other schools. They welcome the opportunities this presents to extend their friendship groups.

Across the school, pupils and adults establish strong and respectful working relationships. The school has robust systems in place to support pupils' safety and welfare.

Generally, pupils behave well in the classrooms and around the school at social times.

The school has taken robust action to promote good behaviour, for example by reducing the use of derogatory languag...e. This has included addressing issues around discrimination, including casual misogyny.

The school strives for all pupils to achieve well in their studies and in their personal development.

The school is successful in meeting these goals. There is a strong, inclusive culture, and the school provides well for the much higher-than-average proportion of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils who struggle to achieve high GCSE grades are also supported well to access A-level or vocational courses in the sixth form.

Pupils have many opportunities to participate in a wide range of enrichment activities. These include sports, debating and outdoor education.

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

The school has developed an ambitious curriculum.

It covers all the requirements of the national curriculum. The school's high aspirations for its pupils are reflected in its ensuring that almost nine out of 10 pupils are entered for the English Baccalaureate (EBacc). Pupils' achievements in the EBacc are particularly high, as are their outcomes in mathematics and humanities.

The sixth-form curriculum offer is extensive. It offers students a very wide choice of A-level and vocational courses. Helping everyone to be successful in their sixth-form studies is well considered.

For example, the school offers students an option of doing a year of level 2 foundational courses in preparation for entry to A-level and level 3 vocational courses.

The school has given careful thought, across the subjects, to the knowledge that it wants pupils to know. Teachers have the subject expertise to deliver the curriculum effectively.

Pupils build their knowledge securely over time. Teachers ensure that pupils revise their work often. This helps them to retain key knowledge in their long-term memories.

Staff have improved the strategies they use to check on pupils' learning. They identify pupils' knowledge gaps and misconceptions. However, some teaching does not routinely use this information to address the identified knowledge gaps.

This means some gaps in pupils' key knowledge that lay the foundation for further successful learning remain and are not rectified early enough. This presents a barrier to pupils' successful future learning.

Staff have received training on how to adapt their teaching to meet the range of pupils' needs.

This is having a positive effect on helping pupils with SEND to access the same curriculum as their peers.Pupils are taught a rich and broad English curriculum. However, the school does not currently have a clear strategy to identify and support pupils who are not yet fully proficient in using phonics knowledge to read accurately and fluently.

This makes it more difficult for them to access the wider curriculum.

Pupils demonstrate positive attitudes to their learning. They are attentive and engage well in class discussions, listening to and respecting each other's views.

Sixth-form students make good use of the study facilities to work independently. The school deploys a wide range of well-considered strategies to encourage regular attendance.

The school's programme for impartial careers guidance and advice is effective.

Pupils have encounters with the world of work, including via visitors, attending careers fairs and work experience, for instance. Almost all younger pupils take part in The Duke of Edinburgh's Award. There are many residential trips on offer.

Visits overseas support language learning and cultural understanding. Most pupils attend some of the many clubs on offer. Pupils are encouraged to become active citizens.

Several older pupils lead and get involved with various charity fundraising initiatives. A group of boys collaborated with girls in another school to make a film to raise awareness of, and prevent, sexual harassment.

School leaders and the governing body share a vision and passion.

They want to enable all pupils to succeed in their learning and gain the knowledge and cultural capital they need to be upright citizens. They work well together to achieve these goals. Staff said that the school supports them in a variety of ways to manage their workload and well-being.

The school has built up a strong network in the local community to enrich the school's work and pupils' experiences.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Sometimes, teaching does not address gaps in pupils' knowledge that have been identified through the school's assessment of learning.

This means that some pupils do not secure the key prior knowledge that they will need for the next steps in their learning. The school should ensure that identified knowledge gaps are responded to effectively. ? The school lacks a coherent strategy to identify and support pupils who lack the phonics knowledge and skills to blend sounds to read words accurately and fluently.

This means that these pupils may struggle to access reading materials across all subjects as well as they should. The school should find ways to assess, with precision, the gaps in phonics knowledge that weaker readers have. They should use the information to plan bespoke phonics support to enable these pupils to become confident and fluent readers.

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