pdf Section 8 inspection report - Ofsted

� Improve the quality of teaching and learning by:
making sure that the whole-school focus is consistently upon the quality
of delivery in the classroom
providing regular opportunities for staff to share ideas and to observe
each other teach
focusing the monitoring and evaluation of lessons more sharply on what
teachers need to do to improve
ensuring students receive their ICT entitlement to support their learning
and independent study – satisfactory.
� Improve outcomes in the sixth form by:
providing a suitable curriculum that meets the academic needs of all
students
making full use of local partnerships to enhance the quality of provision –
satisfactory.
The effectiveness of leadership and management
Senior leaders quickly made significant changes to the curriculum and the support
for students during the summer term, which improved provision and attainment.
They recognise the need for a substantial change in teaching quality to obtain longterm
improvements in students’ achievement and attainment. Governors are aware
of developments but have not focused their support and challenge on each key issue
or on ensuring there is appropriate external support. Reorganisation of pastoral
structures into year groups and links with the partner school have brought staff
together effectively to concentrate on improvement. Planning for improvement has
narrowed its focus onto key priorities, to which middle leaders have begun to link
their plans. There is a change in impetus, with staff clearly focused on raising
attainment. While some departments have a strong emphasis on raising the quality
of teaching to achieve this, the sense of urgency of this approach is not consistent
across the school.
Senior leaders have taken steps to improve teaching, particularly where it was
weakest. All teachers have been observed and records of areas for development in
their teaching have been produced, with the intention of providing coaching on
them. However, because of the large number of teachers delivering satisfactory or
weaker lessons, a substantial amount of external support is needed to achieve
improvement through this route. Also, it is not clear how incremental improvement,
for example while teaching remains satisfactory, will be judged. Understanding of
how to judge and improve teaching is growing through shared observation with
middle leaders. However, the records of lesson observations give limited evidence of
the progress of students, particularly the higher attainers, and this may contribute to
some generous judgements. The joint observations made by senior leaders during
the inspection were accurate. Teachers in some subjects are beginning to share
planning and observation of each other’s lessons.