Preston Muslim Girls High School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Leaders should:
  • continue to use high-quality continuing professional development so that teaching remains at the current high standard as the school expands
  • improve achievement still further by a rigorous approach to checking spelling.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

• The governors and senior leaders have a clear, ambitious vision for the development of the school. They use this very well to drive improvements. Self-evaluation is accurate and self-critical and leads to a relentless determination to improve provision for the good of the pupils.
• Leaders have very high expectations of staff and pupils. They are relentless in pursuing a culture of openness and honesty. They are also determined that the pupils become tolerant, insightful adults who contribute positively to their communities locally, nationally and internationally.
• All leaders know the school well. The self-evaluation work of the school is accurate.
• Senior leaders and governors have been unswerving in improving outcomes rapidly in all subject areas. The system of linking each governor to a faculty ensures constant challenge and support for pupils who fall behind. Consequently, achievement and progress continue to improve across all year groups at the school. Middle leaders reflect how supportive and effective the governors are in holding them to account, and they value this.
• The leaders of the school have addressed all the concerns about the breadth of the curriculum highlighted in the last inspection report. They have introduced a wide range of external opportunities for the pupils to complement what they are able to deliver within space-constrained buildings. For example, engineering aspects of the design and technology curriculum have been covered through hands-on visits to local engineering companies.
• The school has taken an exemplary approach to teaching the pupils about equality. In conjunction with Brownedge St Mary’s Catholic High School, it has set up a pupil-led group to look at issues relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual people. This means that the pupils are extremely well informed about the challenges people face and are respectful of all those who are different from themselves. The school has a wide range of extra-curricular activities that enhance their academic studies.
• Pupils articulate what being British means in an eloquent manner. They have very good knowledge and understanding of democracy and law, which is supplemented by outside speakers and visits such as to the Houses of Parliament. The culture of the school to raise money for those less fortunate than themselves has resulted in each form sponsoring an orphan and raising £23,500 for a broad range of charities last year.
• Continuing professional development is regular and often and has a clear impact on the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. The recent improvement in the effectiveness of written feedback to support pupils’ progress is a result of this, for example. Coaching has been recently introduced to very good effect, creating bespoke support for each individual teacher. In addition, the school uses a variety of links with other schools, including the Preston Teaching School Alliance, to enhance its own in-house provision. The school has used a rigorous approach to bespoke training to ensure that the many teachers new to the school, due to its expansion, are quickly supported to deliver lessons of the required standard.
• Leaders of the school work well with parents and other stakeholders and listen carefully to their views. As a result of this, the school is currently changing the way it reports to parents to ensure greater clarity, and it has ensured that Arabic remains an optional language.

Governance of the school

• Governance of the school is excellent. Governors drive improvement through strong accountability frameworks. They are extremely well informed about school performance through the links with middle leaders and use this information to challenge and support staff.
• The governors have a very accurate view of the school both overall and in detail within each faculty they are linked with. This ensures that the leaders drive their vision and create challenge through middle leaders.
• Governors use their skills and networks extremely well to provide the very best they can for the pupils. They give a considerable amount of their own time to plan changes thoroughly to ensure that they are introduced successfully.
• Performance management is used effectively and rigorously at all levels to ensure that the school is constantly reflecting and improving.
• Governors have ensured that additional accommodation has been provided and have overseen the refurbishment of existing areas. This includes specialist areas such as a science laboratory, art room, design technology area, a library and a space for physical education. Where the school cannot create additional space, for example outdoor areas for sporting activities, it uses other local facilities.
• The governors’ strategic plan is to have a sixth form to promote further and higher education for the pupils. They registered the school as an 11–19 provision in 2014. However, they wisely took the decision not to open the sixth form immediately and to use the intended accommodation to allow the school to further expand and solve some of the learning space problems raised in the last report.
• Governors are aspirational for the outcomes of disadvantaged pupils throughout the school. They ensure that resources are spent where they have greatest impact and monitor the progress of these pupils regularly.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• All policies are in place and staff are fully aware of recent changes to safeguarding guidance. As a result, pupils feel safe and well supported. The lead teacher for safeguarding is very well informed and keeps his own knowledge up to date, which he then shares with colleagues.
• When necessary, the school keeps meticulous records on safeguarding concerns and works with a range of external professionals to support pupils.
• All pupils feel completely safe at the school.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

• Teachers have high expectations of what each pupil can achieve. They set challenging targets, including homework, and through expert questioning they ensure that each pupil gains a complete understanding of the topic before moving on. This ethos permeates the school.
• The high expectations of teachers of disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities ensure that they are able to flourish alongside their peers, achieving of their best.
• As a result of high-quality feedback to pupils, both written and verbal, they understand and can articulate what they need to do to achieve more. Teaching encourages pupils to act on feedback to ensure that targets are addressed and improvements are made.
• Teachers’ subject knowledge and detailed knowledge of examination requirements are excellent. Many teachers create interesting and exciting activities to support pupils’ learning. For example, pupils learned how to construct isometric drawings through a planned programme that built up technical skills and stressed the detail necessary for success.
• Information on progress is used well to plan activities. The detailed knowledge of every individual pupil contributes to their rapid progress.
• Oracy skills are strong among the pupils. They are articulate and sophisticated in their spoken contributions and responses to teachers’ excellent questioning. Pupils use these skills to remarkable effect when working in groups and pairs. They listen to each other carefully, and make mature, constructive criticisms which in turn are listened to and acted upon. This leads to pupils acquiring knowledge and skills as independent thinkers.
• Leaders have driven up the standard of written work effectively. All work is consistently well presented, although there are too many instances of incorrectly spelled technical words that are sometimes not corrected by the teacher.
• There is a rich diversity in the type of activities used to develop learning. This contributes to pupils developing a love of learning. They are eager to please, hungry to know more and demonstrate exceptional attitudes to learning throughout the school.
• Where pupils are identified as needing additional support to make rapid progress, the intervention of teaching assistants contributes significantly to their success. Those who need a short-term intervention attend a ‘fun Friday’ support club to improve their literacy and numeracy, which has made a significant difference to these pupils’ outcomes.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

Personal development and welfare

• Leaders’ work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• Relationships between staff and pupils are exemplary, with the teachers setting high expectations for all pupils. Pupils are proud of their school and their achievements.
• Structures, policies and strategies are in place which support the pupils to be confident, independent learners in a safe and supportive environment.
• A strong pastoral system with a team of staff who cater for all three languages of their community provides strong home–school communications. Home–school links are central to staff ensuring that pupils are supported effectively and issues are dealt with quickly. Pupils in key stage 4 particularly valued this support.
• The personal, social, moral and cultural curriculum is comprehensive and innovative. The pupils are very well prepared for their next steps in education. Careers education is independent and very broad, including a particular emphasis on non-stereotypical careers for girls. The personal and social development curriculum underpins the strong, compassionate ethos of the school. In one example, pupils explained that in a lesson on exam stress, they were asked to consider the impact of their stress on members of their families, demonstrating the caring approach of all members of the school’s community. Pupils have an excellent understanding and hands-on experience of all faiths. They articulate the similarities between faiths as a reason for their tolerance of the views of all people.
• The school’s careers education programme is comprehensive and independent. The high level of employer engagement and off-site visits provide a breadth of provision to challenge stereotypical views of employment for pupils.
• Extra-curricular opportunities include hiking, camping, adventure days, and museum and theatre visits. These make a profound difference to the pupils’ experience of the world and broaden their horizons. Pupils embrace all opportunities with open arms.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.
• All pupils are polite, well mannered and courteous to adults and each other at all times. They are also mature and confident. They are not afraid to both challenge and support each other.
• Pupils’ conduct is exemplary at all times and no instances of inappropriate behaviour or inappropriate language were seen or heard at any time.
• As a result of exceptionally high expectations, very close monitoring and intervention on a regular basis, attendance is extremely high and well above national averages for all pupils. All absences are followed up quickly. Persistent absence is very low indeed.
• Bullying is very rare but dealt with effectively when it occurs. Pupils understand the damage that any racist or homophobic language can cause.

Outcomes for pupils Outstanding

• All pupils, including those who are disadvantaged or who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, make rapid progress from their starting points and achieve standards that are well in excess of national averages.
• Current pupils in all year groups are making exceptional progress to reach very challenging targets. The vast majority of pupils are on target to progress at a rate much faster than that expected of similar pupils of their age.
• Pupils achieve exceptionally well in GCSE examinations. In 2015, all subjects performed at least in line with the national figures and the majority well above. The proportion of high grades in English language, English literature, history, religious education, information technology, Urdu and mathematics is significantly above that for all pupils nationally. Over the last three years, there have been rapidly improving levels of attainment due to pupils’ increasingly strong progress.
• From their starting points, disadvantaged pupils, including the most able disadvantaged, make progress that is at least in line with that of other pupils nationally and often well above this. They frequently acquire knowledge and understanding faster than their peers, ensuring that they catch up quickly from their lower starting points. Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make rapid progress throughout the school.
• In 2016, according to the provisional ‘Progress 8’ measure that indicates pupils’ progress from their starting points across a range of subjects, the school’s performance is in the top 5% of all schools nationally. Pupils of different abilities made strong progress in a wide range of subjects in 2016. A much higher proportion of pupils attained the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) than the provisional national average.
• Work in pupils’ books, in all subjects, shows that they have challenging tasks and effective intervention from teachers, which contributes to fast levels of progress. For example, in mathematics, where pupils are not able to achieve a skill initially, evidence is clear that focused support and practice ensure that learning is embedded before moving on.
• Pupils identified for the school’s catch-up programme are in a nurture group. This group makes excellent progress in both English and mathematics due to high expectations, and they are on target to be above their peers in terms of how much progress is made. Their oral skills are particularly well developed. They are able and confident readers by the time they join Year 8.
• The outward-looking nature of leaders has ensured that on the rare occasion that assessments have been found to be less accurate than expected, the school has sought support from a network of local schools to improve this. The systems in place to provide accurate predictions are now robust.
• The range of qualifications and levels pupils achieve provides a very high stepping-off point for the next phase of their education. As a result of effective action by the senior leaders in school, all pupils now move on to employment, education or training post-16.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 136801 Lancashire 10022786 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Secondary comprehensive School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Number of pupils on the school roll Voluntary aided 11 to 19 Girls 437 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Mr Arif Isaap Mufti Javid 01772 651906 www.pmghs.com info@pmghs.com Date of previous inspection 15–16 January 2013

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school is much smaller than average.
• The school exceeds all floor standards.
• Since the last inspection report, the school has registered as an 11–19 school but currently only educates pupils in the 11–16 age range.
• Few pupils are disadvantaged. Almost all pupils are from ethnic minority backgrounds.
• The school is supported by the Preston Teaching School Alliance. Pupils work with others from Brownedge St Mary’s Catholic High School.

Information about this inspection

• A range of lessons was observed. Some of these were joint observations with the senior staff of the school. Learning walks and a work scrutiny also took place.
• Meetings were held with a range of senior and middle leaders, pupils, the local authority school improvement partner and the governors, including the chair of the governing body.
• The school’s own survey results and the 29 responses from Ofsted’s Parent View survey were considered.
• Pupils from Years 7 and 8 were heard reading to a member of the inspection team.

Inspection team

Elizabeth Haddock, lead inspector Mark Sibson Dawn Farrent

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector