The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You and your senior leaders have put in place effective monitoring procedures. Your knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of each area of your school’s practice is always detailed and up to date. You have clearly defined the distinct monitoring roles of middle and senior leaders. By sharing good practice and swiftly addressing the areas which need to improve, you ensure that quality and standards do not deteriorate. You have made considerable changes to subject leadership in key areas. Your subject leaders are enthusiastic subject specialists. They relish taking on new ideas and responsibilities. They play an important role in securing improvements in the quality of teaching and in the rates of pupils’ progress in those subjects which underperformed in the past. Staff are loyal to you and to the school. They feel that senior leaders and governors value their hard work and determination. They appreciate the professional development opportunities that you give them and the trust that you place in them to make their own decisions. Your newest teachers feel very well supported. Established staff are inducting them into a school community which has high expectations of work and behaviour. Teachers and support staff welcome working with other schools, such as those within the Tauheedul Trust. They believe that the quality of teaching at St. Bede’s benefits from the ideas which teachers and leaders share in networks. Your staff enjoy providing continuous professional development for other schools. The governors of your school bring a high level of professional, academic and educational skills to their roles and give their time generously. Their skills and experience enable them to hold you and your staff to account. They ask forthright and detailed questions about all areas of school life. The new committee structure has allowed governors to explore issues in depth. Their knowledge of the school’s strengths and areas for development is impressive. Pupils were keen to talk to inspectors. They are proud of their school. They believe that the teaching they experience helps them to enjoy learning and achieve their potential. At the time of the last inspection, inspectors asked you to improve teaching and progress for the most able, embed new approaches to marking and make sure that the website contains all required information. You have addressed these areas successfully. In the years following the last inspection, significantly more pupils gained A and A* grades at GCSE. However, you have identified that most-able pupils currently do not make as much progress as other groups in the school. This remains an area for development You have reviewed the examination entry policy so that most-able pupils now have more opportunity to achieve the top grades. The new arrangements for triple science allow the most able scientists to achieve to their very best. Staff have reviewed schemes of work to reflect higher expectations and to focus on the development of pupils’ skills as well as their knowledge and understanding. Scrutiny of English and mathematics work during the inspection indicated that the most able pupils complete very challenging tasks, particularly in extended writing in English and reasoning and problem solving in mathematics. Pupils said that they find feedback from teachers very helpful. When looking at pupils’ work, my colleague and I found that they use teachers’ feedback very well to make corrections and improve their work. The school’s website is very well organised. Staff have presented and organised information in a way which makes it easy to find and understand. It contains all required information. Your policy of identifying underperformance as early as possible has enabled staff to provide targeted support from Year 7. As a result, pupils need less additional help as they move up the school and are in a better position to achieve well at key stage 4. Leaders have used funding well for pupils who came to St. Bede’s with low levels of numeracy and literacy. Well-devised early intervention has ensured that the majority are catching up with their peers and therefore have the reading, writing and mathematical skills to support their learning in all subjects.