Setting

Aviation House 125 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE T 0300 123 1231 F 020 7421 6855 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Mrs P Sargent Headteacher Patcham High School Ladies Mile Road Brighton BN1 8PB

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business and enterprise

Thank you for your hospitality and cooperation, and that of your staff and students, during my visit on 1 and 2 May 2012 to look at work in economics, business and enterprise.

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business and enterprise

The visit provided valuable information which will contribute to our national evaluation and reporting. Published reports are likely to list the names of the contributing institutions but individual institutions will not be identified in the main text without their consent.

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business and enterprise

As this school does not provide formally assessed courses in business, the visit focused on the development of economic and business understanding, personal financial capability, and enterprise skills for all students.

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business and enterprise

The evidence used to inform the judgements included: interviews with staff and students; scrutiny of relevant documentation; analysis of students’ work; and observation of five lessons and an assembly.

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business and enterprise

The overall effectiveness of economics, business and enterprise is good.

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Achievement in economics, business and enterprise

Achievement in economics, business and enterprise is good.

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Achievement in economics, business and enterprise

 Students are developing good understanding and skills in relation to enterprise education, including good employability skills, as a result of a rich and very well-planned curriculum. Students talk confidently about what they have learned. They enjoy working in groups and learning through activities and discussion.

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Quality of teaching in economics, business and enterprise

The quality of teaching in economics, business and enterprise is good.

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Quality of teaching in economics, business and enterprise

 Teachers have good subject knowledge and a good rapport with their students. Their well-planned lessons include a wide range of relevant tasks and activities that successfully engages students’ interest and involvement and develops their enterprise and employability skills. Students’ behaviour in the lessons observed was good.  Teachers pay very good attention to ensuring that students acquire and use appropriate terminology and to developing students’ literacy. However, in the lessons observed, teachers’ questioning to check and extend students’ learning was not of a consistently high standard.

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Quality of the curriculum in economics, business and enterprise

The quality of the curriculum in economics, business and enterprise is outstanding.

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Quality of the curriculum in economics, business and enterprise

 Leaders and managers make outstanding provision throughout the school for economics and business understanding, enterprise and personal financial capability. A high-quality social, personal and citizenship education programme (known in the school as ‘life skills’) provides a rich and diverse core. Arrangements to gain formal accreditation for students’ achievements in life skills are well conceived.  The school provides excellent opportunities for all students to develop leadership and team-working skills through its sports provision, and for the development of other enterprise skills through the information and communications technology and media programmes for all students. This provision makes an excellent contribution to developing students’ enterprise and employability skills.  Students value the opportunity to take on additional roles as they progress through the school such as becoming ‘lead’ and ‘support’ students; they

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Quality of the curriculum in economics, business and enterprise

reflect with considerable maturity on the skills they have developed as a result and on the value of the application process in reflecting recruitment and selection practices in industry .

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and enterprise

The effectiveness of leadership and management in economics, business and enterprise is good.

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and enterprise

 In the lessons observed jointly with the inspector, school leaders provided an accurate and reliable view of strengths and areas for improvement in teaching and learning. However, the school recognises that lesson observations do not reflect explicitly on the high importance given to developing students’ enterprise and employability skills and thus to preparation for their working lives.  The whole-school vision for developing students’ enterprise skills and understanding and preparing them for productive working life is very clear. This provision contributes very well to their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, include:

 ensuring that teachers’ use of questioning is of a consistently high standard, in order to check and consolidate all students’ learning systematically and enable students to develop and practise higher-order thinking skills, such as analysis and evaluation  highlighting, in lesson observations, the development of students’ enterprise and employability skills in order to contribute to the continuous improvement of the provision.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, include:

I hope that these observations are useful as you continue to develop economics, business and enterprise in the school.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, include:

As explained previously, a copy of this letter will be published on the Ofsted website. It may be used to inform decisions about any future inspection. A copy of this letter is also being sent to your local authority.

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