The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You lead with clarity, warmth and passion. Consequently, you and other leaders, including governors, have successfully built on the strengths of the school since the previous inspection. You and other leaders make good use of performance information and the views of pupils, staff and parents when evaluating the effectiveness of provision. As a result, you have an accurate view of the school’s performance and use this effectively when planning further developments. This is leading to greater consistency in the quality of teaching and improving pupils’ outcomes. Staff fully appreciate and engage with the training and professional development you and other leaders ensure are on offer. This training has led to a well-informed understanding of the methods and the high expectations of teaching practice that you expect. Classrooms have a purposeful and productive atmosphere where pupils can share their targets and talk about their learning confidently. The consistent use of time allocated for pupils to reflect and improve work is used well and greatly appreciated by pupils, who feel that this advances their progress. You have successfully tackled this area for improvement from the last inspection. Pupils are happy, confident and participate in lessons enthusiastically. They respect their teachers and one another. Pupils’ conduct is a strength. Rare instances of poor behaviour are dealt with swiftly and in line with the school’s policy. The very large majority of parents are delighted with the quality of education provided and the caring and inclusive culture that you and your staff have enhanced over time. An overwhelming majority of parents and staff believe that the school is well led and managed. You have successfully improved the school buildings so that the environment is comfortable, safe and secure for learning. Improved learning spaces now include, for example, a new science building. When the school was previously inspected, you were asked to focus on increasing the proportion of students who make outstanding progress. You and the leadership team have built an accurate system for checking how well each pupil is doing. You have also improved the consistency of teaching by implementing robust systems for checking quality across subjects. You share this information openly with governors so that they can see the relative performance of pupils and groups of pupils and provide timely challenge to leaders. Teachers regularly update this information and successfully use it to ensure that pupils do not fall too far behind by planning bespoke additional support where it is needed. Across all year groups, many pupils have entered the school with attainment significantly below the national average for Year 7. Pupils’ progress is improving and accurate school data indicates that support for pupils is having a substantial impact on their progress. Nevertheless, you recognise that a minority of some particular groups of pupils still do not achieve as well as they could. For example, a small minority of disadvantaged pupils have historically made weaker progress than others nationally. The leader in charge of the sixth form rightly recognises that consistency in achievement across the range of subjects needs to improve still further, although outcomes are improving yearly. Overall, pupils’ attendance continues to improve and was better than the national average for secondary schools last year. Nevertheless, you are aware of aboveaverage absence for some groups of pupils, because of the improvements made to the whole-school systems for tracking progress that you have introduced. Despite your implementation of effective strategies, attendance for some groups has not improved as quickly as you would like, particularly the disadvantaged pupils. Safeguarding is effective. You and your leadership team have ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. All records are of high quality and appropriately detailed. Checks undertaken on the suitability of staff and volunteers are thorough and updated regularly. You, governors and other school leaders keep your own safeguarding knowledge up to date by attending effective training. You make sure that all staff and governors access training that will support their roles appropriately. Those responsible for safeguarding work well with the local authority and other external agencies. Effective communication has ensured that timely and appropriate referrals are made and that school systems are robust. Pupils know who their ‘go to’ staff are, and can refer quickly to what they have been taught about personal safety when making decisions.