The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Leaders’ actions have made improvements which have led to the good outcomes achieved by pupils being sustained in recent years. Based on these good results, particularly the notable progress made by pupils in a range of subjects, you feel that this is an outstanding school. Inspectors judge it to be good rather than outstanding. There are aspects of mathematics and the sixth form that need developing further to ensure that the high aspirations you and your governors have for the school are met fully. Outcomes for pupils are good. The above-average results achieved by pupils in Year 11 in 2016 improved further in 2017 to well above average.. A higher-than-average proportion of pupils met national expectations in English and mathematics. The proportion of pupils achieving the English Baccalaureate was well above average. Furthermore, the better-than-average progress made by pupils throughout key stages 3 and 4 last year improved further in 2017. This year, on average, pupils achieved over half a grade higher than others nationally. Pupils make exceptional progress in English, mainly because the subject leader and her team of staff provide pupils with consistently good teaching. In mathematics, overall progress has remained above average over the past two years, but pupils make less progress than they do in English. This is because the actions taken to improve mathematics have not ironed out all of the inconsistencies in teaching. You have made changes to the school’s small sixth form to broaden its appeal to your own and other students locally. You and your governors are keen to ensure that it serves the local community well and more of your own pupils see it as their first choice at the end of Year 11. To achieve this, the curriculum has been broadened to include more vocational courses suited to students’ vocational aspirations. Leaders’ actions to raise the achievement of disadvantaged pupils are leading to improvement. Your records show that, currently, disadvantaged pupils make much better progress than in the past. Pupil premium funding has enabled you to tailor support for individual pupils and ensure that they are fully prepared for examinations. Clear plans are in place to make further improvements. Pupils enjoy coming to school. They feel safe and say that it is a friendly place to be. The school is calm and orderly. Pupils conduct themselves very well. They value the range of lunchtime and after-school activities provided for them, but would like more sports activities. They feel that the school council works effectively and their views are listened to. Many of them contribute to school life by readily volunteering as captains, peer supporters and library assistants. Safeguarding is effective. The single central record is suitably maintained. It is checked regularly by governors. Trained designated leaders work as a team to ensure that they respond promptly to concerns and that safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Policies and procedures are in place to protect children. Records of incidents or concerns are maintained fully and stored safely. Working relationships with local support agencies are well established. The school deploys its own support staff to engage with parents of pupils it has concerns about. Staff training in safeguarding, including the ‘Prevent’ duty, is up to date. Inspection findings Since the last inspection, a local secondary school and two primary schools have joined the North Norfolk Multi-Academy Trust and now work in partnership with your school. As chief executive of the trust, you share your time across this partnership effectively to ensure that you maintain a firm grasp of the performance of Sheringham High School. You, your senior leaders and governors know the school’s strengths and weaknesses, and the actions needed to improve it further. To determine whether the school remained good, we followed four lines of enquiry during the inspection. These were based on the issues raised in the last inspection, recent performance information and an analysis of the school’s and the trust’s websites. We focused on the reasons for the school’s high achievement and the actions taken by leaders to maintain this, the attendance and achievement of disadvantaged pupils, the effectiveness of the sixth form and the steps taken to ensure that pupils are suitably prepared for A-level studies and whether the school is a safe, stimulating and enjoyable place to be. You can demonstrate a track record of sustained good outcomes for pupils since the last inspection. Observations by inspectors, carried out jointly with your senior leaders, confirmed that, in general, good teaching leads to pupils’ good learning and progress. Teachers know pupils well and forge good relationships with them. Teachers use their detailed subject knowledge to plan learning that promotes pupils’ interest. English leads the way in developing teaching that stimulates and engages pupils in their learning. Staff have high expectations. They set pupils challenges that require them to work hard for extended periods of time and reflect on the quality of their writing. Effective questioning and discussion in groups encourage pupils to review their own and others’ work to make it better. In science, pupils enjoy practical, hands-on tasks to help them learn. Information technology is used effectively to show them what to do and how to review their own learning. However, teachers do not make regular checks in some lessons to see if pupils are working hard enough or are coping well with tasks. Brief visits to mathematics lessons revealed a range of strengths and weaknesses. Teachers forge good relationships with pupils and manage their behaviour effectively. They plan tasks to get pupils thinking and to work together to solve problems. Pupils work diligently but, at times, the most able pupils are not fully challenged. Not all teachers show pupils how to present their work neatly or review the different ways of completing calculations. You and your governors recognise the need for greater consistency and have rightly prioritised improving the quality of teaching to improve outcomes in mathematics in the school improvement plan. Your senior leaders carefully monitor the progress pupils make using your bespoke assessment procedures. This enables staff to respond promptly if pupils show signs of needing help and to target additional support for those at risk of underachieving. Review meetings with subject leaders hold them accountable for the results achieved each year. These reviews help to inform departmental plans for improvement and set suitable targets for managing the performance of staff. Pupil premium funding has been used effectively to narrow gaps in the performance of disadvantaged pupils compared to others. In 2015, disadvantaged pupils made much better progress than other pupils in the school and nationally. This was not sustained in 2016, mainly because disadvantaged pupils made less progress in mathematics. Prompt action to rectify this has worked. Progress in mathematics is better and the overall progress made by disadvantaged pupils this year is above average. The attendance of some disadvantaged pupils was too low last year. Leaders have taken action to improve it and, so far this year, attendance is above average. You have introduced more rigorous procedures to monitor absence and to tackle those pupils who do not attend regularly. Actions also include challenging the parents of pupils who are persistently absent from school and, if necessary, taking legal proceedings to improve matters.