The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the previous inspection. You and your team are focused, highly able and determined that each of your pupils reaches their full potential and develops a skill set that enables them to be successful in whatever they choose to do. Your pupils know and appreciate this. Relationships between staff and pupils are exceptionally strong. Your leadership team model and exemplify high expectations through their day-to-day work. You have successfully created a calm and productive learning environment. Pupils feel very safe in your school and they are overwhelmingly positive about being part of the school community. Older pupils take on mentor roles to younger pupils and this helps to develop an ethos whereby pupils are supportive of one another. There is a multitude of opportunities for your pupils to be involved in extra-curricular activities and they really value these. Pupils say that over time, behaviour has improved and low-level disruption occurs much less frequently now because teachers manage behaviour well. Parents echo this, with almost all saying that they would recommend your school to others. At the last inspection, you were asked to improve the quality of teaching so that pupils develop the skills to learn for themselves. Through very strong leadership of teaching and learning, effective performance management and bespoke professional development, leaders have ensured that teaching has improved and continues to improve. Leaders ensure that there are opportunities for teachers to share good practice. Work in pupils’ books shows clear evidence of progress and that pupils are developing learning skills. Leaders have accurately evaluated the quality of education at the school and developed a robust action plan, which is reviewed regularly. Leaders at all levels are held to account for implementing the plan and improving pupils’ progress. You have identified progress in some subjects as areas that you need to continue to work on, alongside improving attendance, particularly for pupils who are disadvantaged and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Safeguarding is effective. You have very effective policies and procedures in place to ensure that pupils are safe. Your open and honest ethos and culture ensures that pupils have adults that they can seek help and support from if they need it. Leaders have highly effective links with external agencies. This means that when pupils need additional help, it is quickly obtained. Meticulous and robust record-keeping ensures that leaders of safeguarding have all information to hand when they need it. The team approach to safeguarding that you implement ensures that pupils are looked after very well. Regular training and safeguarding updates ensure that all teachers have an acute awareness of their responsibilities to safeguard pupils. Governors play an active role in providing challenge and support which ensures that safeguarding remains a high priority and a strength of the school. Inspection findings Leaders ensure that the curriculum is appropriate for all learners. Pupils in Year 8 select their options based around their interests and this helps them to stay focused and try hard. Aspirations are high for all pupils and consequently pupils enjoy their learning and make good progress. Governors know the school extremely well. They are knowledgeable about their roles and provide high challenge and support to school leaders. Alongside the principal, they are a force for good and are highly ambitious for all pupils. Governors meet regularly with leaders at all levels to evaluate the quality and success of the provision, which leads to appropriate actions for improvement. Inspectors looked at how well prepared pupils are for their next steps, following their time at school. Careers information and guidance is a strength of the school. Pupils feel very well prepared for their next steps and the school is proud of pupils, including those who have successfully secured post-16 scholarships at Durham School. Almost all pupils progress to further education, employment or training. During the inspection, inspectors looked closely at how leaders are taking action to improve attendance. School leaders are continuously implementing wellthought-out and exciting interventions such as ‘the attendance wheel’ and extra- curricular opportunities such as the sports academy and army cadets, which are beginning to improve attendance. Systems for tackling poor attendance are appropriate. Leaders work closely with parents and recognise that parental support is vital in improving pupils’ attendance further. Inspectors looked carefully at some areas of the curriculum where pupils’ progress has not been as strong. Leaders are taking action to improve these areas. For example, in science, you are employing additional teachers to improve outcomes for Year 11 pupils and, in languages, you have changed the language taught to Spanish following consultation with parents and pupils. This is resulting in interested pupils who are making better progress than previously. It is, however, too soon to see the full impact of these changes. In mathematics, following a dip in performance, pupils are now back on track to make good progress. Leaders and staff recognise the importance of developing strong relationships with pupils, particularly those who are vulnerable or disadvantaged. Through these supportive relationships, pupils are encouraged and supported to achieve. Pupils want to do well for themselves but they also want to make the school proud. This is an absolute strength of your school and one of the reasons why disadvantaged pupils are achieving well. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: work to improve attendance continues, particularly for pupils who are disadvantaged and who have special educational needs and/or disabilities subjects where pupils are not making as much progress continue to be supported and challenged to improve, so that pupils achieve their full potential. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Sunderland. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Debbie Redshaw Her Majesty’s Inspector Information about the inspection During this one-day inspection, inspectors met with you, your senior leaders and some of you middle leaders, governors, including the chair of governors, and some of your pupils. We gathered a range of evidence from conducting tours of the school to see learning in progress and from scrutinising pupils’ work jointly with your senior leaders. The inspection team also scrutinised and evaluated school documents including your child protection policy, safeguarding records, school selfevaluation, school improvement plans, evaluations of the quality of teaching and learning, performance management information and attendance information. Account was taken of 162 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View.