The headteacher of one of Carlisle’s largest secondary schools said it has already begun to make strides forward after it was told it needed to improve by the education watchdog.
Trinity School, on Strand Road, was inspected by Ofsted in May. While inspectors found that its sixth form and personal development of pupils was good, they gave it an overall rating of ‘requires improvement’.
It is the rating above inadequate and according to Ofsted: “These schools still provide an acceptable quality of education and care for children, but will have areas where they could improve.
“Schools rated requires improvement usually have another full Ofsted inspection within two years of their last inspection.”
Headteacher Jo Hawkin said: “We are already dealing with the areas the inspection identified as areas for improvement and we are confident that we will ensure that our students leave Trinity School with the skills and knowledge to enable them to lead full and fulfilling lives.”
Inspectors said the school, which has 1,641 pupils, had a clear vision and developed a community which was caring, tolerant and support. Its safeguarding measures were effective.
However, their report found:
- Some teachers lack the expertise and knowledge necessary to deliver some aspects of the curriculum well. They said: “They struggle to design appropriate learning activities. As a result, some pupils do not progress through the curriculum as well as they should.”
- Pupils with special educational needs did not always receive the support they needed. Inspectors said: “Some teachers do not use the information that they have about pupils with SEND effectively enough to support this group of pupils to access the same ambitious curriculum as their peers.”
- Too many pupils do not attend school enough. Inspectors added: “This is particularly the case for pupils with special educational needs and disadvantaged pupils. Many of these pupils are absent from school too often. This hinders their learning.”
- Governors were not challenging enough to the school’s leadership, including the quality of education and attendance.
Inspectors spoke with teachers and pupils during their visit.
They said: “Pupils and students know that leaders have high expectations for their behaviour and achievement. They understand the behaviour policy and the consequences if they do not meet the high expectations.
“However, some pupils do not behave as well as they should. Occasionally, pupils’ learning in lessons is disrupted.
“Pupils and students feel safe in school. They said that if they report bullying, leaders act quickly to stop it happening. However, despite there being a range of ways for pupils to report bullying, some pupils are unwilling to do so.”
They added that the school’s leaders and governors had set out a clear vision for the school and developed a community that was caring, tolerant and supportive.
Ms Hawkin added: “We are pleased that Ofsted recognised, in the midst of a pandemic that has hit the Trinity School community particularly hard, that we have worked hard to develop a community that is ‘caring, tolerant and supportive’.
“We have worked hard to establish a new and improved culture and climate since we returned to school in September without restrictions and bubbles underpinned by the high expectations of pupils’ behaviour and achievement recognised in the report.
“Our focus now, already identified for improvement as part of our own internal evaluation, is to develop the consistency of teaching and learning across all years in the school.
“We are committed to providing all students with a rich, challenging and ambitious curriculum in which all students are successful and leave equipped with the knowledge and skills to lead a life full to overflowing.
“We know that there is work to do to ensure that learning is delivered in a way that helps all students to know more of the curriculum and to make the progress that they should.
“This includes improving the progress of students with SEND taught outside our successful Home Group, who already feel ‘well supported.’
“We also need to work hard to ensure that students with SEND and some disadvantaged students attend school more regularly and we have already increased and restructured our attendance team to ensure that we can improve our strategies for reducing absence for these groups of students.
“We know that we still have work to do to continue to address the small minority of students who do not behave as they should and hope that the extra wellbeing support we have put in place for vulnerable students post pandemic will support them in returning to normal routines as time progresses and the impacts of COVID-19 begin to reduce.”
