Harrytown Catholic High School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve pupils’ progress by:
  • checking that teachers and senior leaders have a shared understanding of how to implement the school’s assessment and target-setting system
  • ensuring that interventions and support funded by the pupil premium are targeted effectively to diminish more rapidly differences between the academic progress of disadvantaged pupils and that of other pupils nationally.
• Improve the quality of teaching by:
  • ensuring that teachers plan activities which closely match the abilities and prior attainment of all pupils, in particular the least and most able, and especially in mixed-ability classes in key stage 4
  • widening the range of strategies used by teachers to ensure that the progress of disadvantaged pupils does not fall behind that of their peers
  • making sure that teachers use questioning to check pupils’ understanding before they move on to the next task.
• Improve leadership and management by:
  • ensuring that school improvement planning identifies the time allocated to implement change and how success is to be measured
  • developing better access to information on the website and ensuring that leaders present key information in a way which is more easily understood by parents and other users. An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management

Requires improvement

• Although leaders have implemented changes in response to the previous inspection report, the impact of their actions has not yet been fully effective. Consequently, teaching and pupils’ progress remain inconsistent.
• Many aspects of teaching, learning and assessment have improved, especially in mathematics, but overall the quality of teaching remains variable, and some aspects of assessment lack clarity and consistency.
• The school improvement plan accurately reflects the developmental needs of the school and identifies appropriate actions. However, it does not make it clear how much time is available to implement change or how success is to be measured. This makes it difficult for senior leaders and governors to track the pace and impact of change.
• Leaders commissioned a review of the pupil premium funding after the previous inspection, but it did not result in diminishing differences between the academic progress of this group and that of other pupils nationally. The use of the pupil premium funding has not been fully effective in raising achievement, but it has been spent effectively to remove specific barriers to good attendance and punctuality.
• The headteacher and governors have not shied away from taking decisive action to improve the quality of teaching. They make effective use of performance targets and a programme of support and continuous professional development. A significant number of teachers new to the school have recently taken up post, and the level of staff absence has decreased substantially.
• Middle and senior leaders have an accurate view of pupils’ progress, attainment and behaviour. However, their view of the quality of teaching, and leadership and management over time, is too positive. This is because of some lack of focus on the impact of teaching, and leadership and management, on pupils’ progress and particularly the progress of disadvantaged pupils.
• Funding for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities has been used effectively and has resulted in improved attendance and progress.
• Funding allocated for pupils who need to catch up in mathematics and/or English in Year 7 has been well used to provide extra support in numeracy and reading. Both groups of pupils are gradually reaching the same levels as their classmates.
• The actions of leaders have resulted in a marked improvement in the culture for learning. The implementation of well-devised policies and procedures has significantly improved pupils’ behaviour and their attitudes to their studies. The headteacher, governors and the senior leadership team model good relationships, and pupils learn from this behaviour and in turn have positive relationships with each other.
• Leaders’ actions have also improved attendance, especially for disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.
• Subject leaders have been given much more autonomy and confidence since the last inspection. They now play a significant role in monitoring standards and quality in their subject departments, and this has contributed to recent improvements in pupils’ progress and the quality of teaching.
• The curriculum offered to pupils provides a good balance between English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects and other subjects. The most able pupils have the opportunity to study single sciences and two languages.
• The curriculum is enhanced by a wide variety of well-attended extra-curricular activities, and a well-structured programme of personal, social and health education contributes to pupils’ personal development.
• Leaders have created high-quality opportunities for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. The Catholic ethos of the school and the regular contemplation of themes contribute significantly to the development of pupils’ spirituality.
• Pupils have a good knowledge of, and respect for, religious beliefs which are different from their own. The school curriculum promotes tolerance and fairness, and discussions with pupils show that they respect those who may have different lifestyles from their own. Pupils’ understanding of democracy is enhanced by opportunities to take part in the school council, mock elections and voting on topics such as Brexit.
• Leaders, including governors, place a great deal of importance on pupils’ responsibility towards their local community and beyond to develop an awareness of the needs of others. Pupils devise their own fundraising activities to support many initiatives, including a local charity for the homeless, and they attend events where they serve food to the homeless and the elderly. The school supports a range of charitable initiatives such as an educational project in Sierra Leone and the work of the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD).
• During the inspection, leaders made changes to the school’s website to ensure that it includes all required information. However, some sections are not easy for parents to understand, and it is not easy to find the required information. Leaders have already contracted a web designer to produce a more appropriate format for the site. The school has received significant support from the diocese of Shrewsbury and from Stockport local authority. They have worked in partnership to provide advice and guidance to senior leaders and governors. Officers’ attendance at governors’ meetings and reviews of school performance have ensured that the local authority and diocese have an accurate view of strengths and areas which need to improve. The local authority has funded support for teaching and leadership in mathematics provided by Cheadle Hulme High School, and the diocese has brokered support for mathematics from the Loreto Teaching School Alliance. This support is beginning to have a positive impact on the progress in mathematics of current pupils in the school.

Governance of the school

• Governors recognise that there is still much they must do to improve the progress of disadvantaged pupils.
• Since the last inspection, all but two of the previous governors have left post and, with the support of the diocese, over the last 18 months the school has recruited new governors with considerable skills and experience in senior leadership, education and business.
• Governors are highly committed and give of their time generously. They now know and understand the school’s strengths and the areas which need improvement and have worked strategically with the headteacher and senior leadership team to plan for positive change. There was insufficient time for this strategic work to have an impact on outcomes in 2016 but it is beginning to show improvements for current pupils in the school.
• Immediately after the disappointing results in 2016, governors set up a data committee which has met frequently to ensure that they are in a good position to monitor and challenge the school regularly and in sufficient depth.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Leaders, including governors, have prioritised safeguarding and have ensured that pupils feel safe in school and understand how to protect themselves from physical and emotional harm. They have made sure that pupils know how to keep themselves safe when using the internet and mobile technology. Strategies are in place to help pupils understand the dangers presented by extremist behaviour and radicalisation.
• All policies and procedures are up to date and reflect the latest national guidance. Staff are well trained in all aspects of safeguarding and are clear which procedures to follow should they have concerns.
• Leaders and governors are vigilant when appointing staff and make all the necessary checks to assure themselves of candidates’ suitability for working with children and young people.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Since the last inspection, leaders have put in place many strategies to improve the quality of teaching. While these have resulted in improvement in important areas, teaching is not yet consistently good.
• Improvements in teaching have not resulted in a rapid enough increase in the progress of disadvantaged pupils in relation to that of other pupils nationally with similar starting points. Teachers do not use a sufficiently wide range of strategies to ensure that disadvantaged pupils do not fall behind their peers.
• There is inconsistency in teachers’ use of information about pupils’ abilities and prior learning when planning activities. This leads to times when the least able pupils fail to make progress because the work set is too difficult and the most able do not achieve what they are capable of because work is not sufficiently challenging for them. This is the case across a variety of subjects and age groups but is particularly evident in mixed-ability classes in key stage 4.
• Teachers are well-qualified subject specialists who apply their knowledge appropriately to plan activities which meet the requirements of examinations and the national curriculum. Teachers organise lessons well and use a variety of well-chosen resources to motivate pupils.
• Teachers use questions in a timely way to deepen pupils’ understanding. Questioning is not used as successfully to check pupils’ understanding and clarify misconceptions. The progress of the least able pupils is hindered when they start activities considerably later than their peers because teachers have not realised that they have not understood the task or key concepts.
• Leaders have developed policies to ensure that all subjects contribute to pupils’ development of literacy and numeracy skills. Teachers in different subjects are helping pupils to improve their spelling and vocabulary. Pupils informed inspectors that the form-time schedule is well used to enhance the development of literacy and numeracy skills.
• Last year, the school’s assessment of pupils resulted in considerably overgenerous estimates of the grades they would achieve at GCSE. Leaders have put in place more rigorous tracking and assessment. Supported by members of the senior leadership team, departments conduct standardisation of grades, and the English and mathematics departments have moderated their grading of work with other schools.
• The assessment and target-setting policy results in aspirational targets and appropriate milestones as part of what the school calls every pupil’s individual ‘learning journey’. However, the implementation of the policy across departments is not yet consistent. The ‘learning journeys’ calculated by senior leadership are not always those used by subject departments, and senior leadership’s understanding of the way current progress towards targets should be calculated is not shared by all teachers.
• The school has a well-developed homework policy. Pupils expressed the view that homework is regular, and they could give examples of homework which had extended and reinforced work they had done in class. Inspectors saw many examples of homework which contributed positively to pupils’ knowledge, skills and understanding.
• Teachers have positive relationships with their classes and have high expectations of behaviour. Some parents indicated in their responses to the inspection survey that they have concerns about behaviour in lessons. However, evidence gathered from discussions with pupils, pupil and staff questionnaires and from inspectors’ first-hand observations indicates that pupils behave well and are keen to learn.
• The school provides parents with clear and informative reports on their children’s progress.
• Teachers do not tolerate the use of derogatory language. In discussions with inspectors, pupils said that teachers deal well with the extremely rare instances when pupils use insulting discriminatory language.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• The school provides a nurturing environment and a high level of pastoral care. Vulnerable pupils very much appreciate the care and support that they are given.
• Discussions with pupils and staff, as well as responses by pupils, staff and parents to surveys, indicate that all have a high level of confidence in the school’s systems to ensure the safety and good care of all of its pupils.
• Inclusion staff provide social and emotional support, which has been the main factor in improving the attendance and punctuality of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.
• The school makes good use of external agencies when pupils need specialist support. Staff are very tenacious in following up referrals to specialist professionals.
• Pupils with additional physical and emotional needs speak highly of the work of staff in ensuring that they have equal opportunities and receive good care. A typical comment was, ‘It doesn’t matter what time of day it is, or what pastoral staff are doing, they will stop everything to listen to me because they know I wouldn’t come to them if I didn’t need to.’
• Discussions with pupils and their response to the Ofsted questionnaire indicate that they feel safe in school. They know who to go to if they have concerns and are confident that staff will always deal well with any issues or problems.
• The personal, social and health education programme in the school is well devised and teaches pupils how to keep themselves safe from physical and emotional harm, how to avoid the dangers of extremism and how to keep themselves safe online. Teachers make pupils aware of how to follow a healthy lifestyle and maintain positive and safe physical and emotional relationships.
• School records, and discussions with staff and pupils, indicate that bullying is rare and that when it occurs staff deal with it well so that it does not happen again.
• From Year 8 onwards, pupils undertake a programme of careers information, education and guidance which informs their option choices and their choice of further education, training or employment. Good links with local colleges enhance the support pupils are given.
• The school has clear and effective arrangements in place to ensure the attendance and well-being of the small number of pupils who access alternative provision.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• The new behaviour policy has had a very positive impact on pupils’ conduct and their attitudes to learning. The ‘standards card’, which all pupils carry at all times and on which are recorded incidents of positive and negative behaviour, has been very successful. It exemplifies leaders’ determination to provide a balance between rewards and sanctions. Pupils in all year groups told inspectors that there has been a marked improvement in behaviour since its introduction.
• Pupils state that the behaviour policy is implemented consistently by all staff. Behaviour logs, detention records and figures for pupils being sent out of class show a considerable reduction in minor disruption to lessons. The number of fixed-term exclusions is diminishing over time.
• Pupils’ attitudes to learning have been the focus of assemblies and form time. Pupils are frequently reminded of eight aspects of their behaviour which result in good learning and they regularly evaluate themselves against them. In the lessons, assemblies and form periods observed during the inspection, pupils always listened to each other and to the teacher. They showed respect for the views of others and worked well cooperatively in groups.
• The atmosphere around the school at social times is calm and friendly. At times, some areas become very crowded, but staff supervise pupils well and behaviour does not suffer.
• Pupils take pride in their work and it is presented well. Inspectors saw no graffiti on exercise books or files. In formal and informal discussion with inspectors, pupils expressed loyalty to their school and proudly explained the significance of the badges they have been awarded. Pupils wear their uniform with pride.
• As a result of well-devised strategies, attendance and punctuality have improved considerably. The governors’ appointment of an extra member of staff for each year group to support and monitor behaviour, attendance and punctuality has been a key factor. Over the last three years, the overall attendance of pupils has been broadly in line with national averages and, so far this year, is now above the national figure for 2016.
• Although in 2016 to 2017 the attendance of disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities was very low in comparison with that of other pupils nationally, this year there have been great improvements and the difference is diminishing rapidly.
• The percentage of pupils whose attendance is only 90% or lower is still high, but most of these pupils have recently been admitted to the school with long-standing habits of poor attendance which Harrytown’s pastoral staff are working hard to break.
• The introduction of a morning form period has been particularly successful in improving punctuality, especially the punctuality of disadvantaged pupils.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• In 2016, results were much lower than the school predicted. Across eight subjects at GCSE, pupils made less progress than other pupils nationally with similar results from primary school. The progress of lower-attaining pupils and disadvantaged pupils was particularly weak in comparison with that of other pupils nationally with similar starting points.
• There is now much more rigorous assessment which is checked for accuracy. Pupils’ work and school assessments for the autumn term now indicate that, so far this year, there has been some improvement in pupils’ progress across all subjects and year groups.
• The school’s assessment information for the autumn term indicates that the majority of most-able pupils are now making more progress than last year across all subjects, including English and mathematics.
• Although the progress of disadvantaged pupils, including the most able disadvantaged, is improving, the difference between their progress and that of other pupils is not diminishing rapidly enough and is still too great.
• The percentage of pupils entered for the EBacc was similar to the national average in 2016 but, although the percentage achieving it was also in line with the national average, levels of progress in some subjects were very low for disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Current performance information provided by the school for last term indicates that the progress of both groups is improving in EBacc subjects this year.
• Historically, results in English have been strong. This was not the case in 2016. Information from teacher assessments and work scrutiny provides strong evidence that current progress has returned to previous good levels.
• Outcomes in mathematics have been weak over time. Recent changes in the planning and teaching of mathematics are now having some impact on pupils’ knowledge, skills and understanding. The school’s assessment of the work of current pupils indicates that they are making better progress than previously, but there is not yet enough evidence of work across all aspects of mathematics to judge whether this progress will be sustained.
• As a result of changes in how the school provides for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, assessments of the work of this group of pupils indicate they are making better progress than last year. School assessments indicate that differences between pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and others with similar starting points are diminishing.
• The school has introduced initiatives so that pupils of all abilities enjoy reading. They read with confidence and accuracy.
• Those pupils in Year 7 who need to catch up in their English and mathematics this year are improving gradually towards the level of their classmates.
• All subject departments now spend time developing study skills and examination techniques. In discussions with inspectors, pupils said that this has given them more confidence when undertaking work in examination conditions and has improved their predicted grades this year.
• The school’s arrangements for careers education, information, advice and guidance ensure that pupils are prepared for the next stage of their education. Virtually all pupils continue into education, employment or training when they leave school.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 106143 Stockport 10024101 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 Voluntary aided 11 to 16 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 786 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Miss M R Connolly Mr K Turmeau 01614 305 277 www.harrytownschool.org headteacher@harrytown.stockport.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 7–8 January 2015

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements for the publication of specified information on its website.
• Harrytown Catholic High School is a smaller-than-average mixed 11 to 16 secondary comprehensive school.
• The number of pupils supported by the pupil premium funding is just below average.
• The proportion of pupils from ethnic minority groups and for whom English is not the first language is much lower than national averages.
• The proportion of pupils who receive support for special educational needs and/or disabilities is similar to the national figure, and the proportion of pupils who have a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care plan is a little higher than average.
• In 2016, the school met the government’s current floor standards, which set minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress.
• For a small number of pupils, the school uses alternative provision at the Pendlebury Centre and with SMS Education Limited for Construction.
• The school has been supported by Cheadle Hulme High School and the Loreto Teaching School Alliance.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors visited classrooms to observe teaching and pupils’ learning. Some of these lesson observations were carried out jointly with senior leaders.
• Inspectors observed and spoke to pupils during lessons and at breaktimes.
• Inspectors met formally with three groups of pupils. An inspector heard a range of pupils read. Inspectors also considered 144 responses to the Ofsted pupil questionnaire.
• Discussions were held with staff, middle and senior leaders, members of the governing body and representatives from Stockport local authority and the diocese of Shrewsbury.
• Inspectors observed the school’s work and looked at a range of documentation, including arrangements for safeguarding. They took account of school information about pupils’ outcomes and scrutinised pupils’ books.
• Inspectors considered 102 responses to Parent View (Ofsted’s online questionnaire), including 40 free-text comments. In addition, inspectors considered information which the school had gathered from its own parental questionnaires.
• Inspectors considered 44 responses to the Ofsted staff questionnaire.

Inspection team

Liz Kelly, lead inspector Timothy Gartside Alyson Middlemass Pritiben Patel

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector