Willingdon Community School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school. Students achieve well and their attainment, as measured by GCSE results and outcomes on vocational courses, is significantly above average overall by the time they leave. The school has made a significant impact on the progress of lower achieving student groups, so their attainment is rising at a good rate, including in key areas such as literacy.

Teaching and learning are good with an increasing proportion that is outstanding. Staff have high expectations of students and ensure that lessons are productive and enjoyable occasions. Students' behaviour is outstanding and the students feel very safe at school.

They approach learning with en...thusiasm, and the great majority are polite and courteous to staff and each other. The school has been very successful in raising attendance and it is above the national average. Here too, staff focus closely on groups of students requiring help to attend well, so they come to school much more often.

The curriculum is of good quality with some outstanding features, including the breadth of study opportunities matched to students of differing ability. School leaders, including governors, are doing a good job in improving teaching, and the school overall, and show a good capacity to go further. They understand well the areas which could be better so that the actions taken are suitably focused.

Staff share the vision and feel positive about the school's direction. It is not yet an outstanding school because : Not enough teaching is outstanding. In some lessons teachers do not enable students to gain a deep enough understanding of the ideas underpinning their learning, match work precisely to their varied needs or exploit all opportunities to develop students' writing.

The monitoring and development of teaching within subjects is good but is not always of sufficiently high quality to ensure teaching improves rapidly and consistently enough to be outstanding.

Information about this school

Willingdon Community School is of average size. It has specialist status for media and visual arts.

It houses a special facility for hearing impaired students which is managed by the local authority, although the students are on the school's roll. There were three students attending the facility at the time of the inspection, all of whom have statements of special educational needs. A lower-than-average proportion of students are known to be eligible for the pupil premium, or have special educational needs and disabilities requiring support at school action, school action plus or through a statement of special educational needs.

A small number of Traveller students attend the school. Numbers fluctuate and there were 14 attending at the time of the inspection. The great majority of students are White British with few having first languages other than English.

The school supports the leadership of other local schools through its designations as a Leading Edge School and a Gifted and Talented Lead School. In the last year the headteacher has provided support for three local secondary schools. The school meets the current floor standards which set the government's minimum expectations for students' attainment and progress.