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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Mr J Lancaster Headteacher Christ The King Catholic High School and Sixth Form Centre Stamford Road Southport PR8 4EX

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Ofsted 2012–13 subject survey inspection programme: citizenship

Thank you for your hospitality and cooperation, and that of your staff and students, during my visit on 22 and 23 May 2012 to look at work in citizenship.

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Ofsted 2012–13 subject survey inspection programme: citizenship

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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Ofsted 2012–13 subject survey inspection programme: citizenship

The evidence used to inform the judgements included: interviews with staff and students; scrutiny of relevant documentation; analysis of students’ work; and observation of eight lessons, one assembly and a further nine lessons through a learning walk.

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Ofsted 2012–13 subject survey inspection programme: citizenship

The overall effectiveness of citizenship is good.

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Achievement in citizenship

 Students achieve well in citizenship as indicated by the large proportion who give of their time to help others. Active participation is promoted well with students raising over £5,000 this year for their local hospice. In addition, many students successfully complete the Duke of Edinburgh Award, do hand massaging for older members of the community and work in local primaries through the Sports Leaders Award. Students send football kits to developing countries, welfare boxes to troops in Afghanistan and hold a highly successful fair trade chocolate stall. Key Stage 3 students also give up their breaks and lunchtimes to help out in the library.  Students have good opportunities to experience different cultures through the many school trips to local cathedrals, synagogues and Lourdes. Every year, the sixth form hosts international students who say they feel very welcomed into the school.  An effective school council feels their voice is heard by senior leaders.

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Achievement in citizenship

However, opportunities are missed to expand student voice activities, particularly in monitoring the quality of provision.  Students’ understanding of the range and content of citizenship is varied. This is due to historical issues around the teaching of the subject which have now been addressed. Students speak with confidence, however, about a range of topics including human rights, sustainability and democracy.

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Quality of teaching in citizenship

The quality of teaching in citizenship is good.

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Quality of teaching in citizenship

 The quality of teaching in the subject is good. The best teaching is characterised by excellent subject knowledge, good pace and challenge, clear objectives and well-planned outcomes for all abilities. Skills of enquiry are promoted well through well-planned, staged tasks and questions. Students are very aware of the progress they are making because of the clearly understood assessment criteria.  In a Year 10 history lesson, students were highly engaged by a video clip showing Margaret Thatcher’s first speech as she enters Downing Street as Prime Minister. Students responded to thought-provoking questions such as, ‘Why is this event significant?’ This style of open questioning promotes very astute and articulate responses.  However, opportunities are missed to consistently challenge the most able students through extended periods of independent learning and to use assessment criteria explicitly at the beginning of lessons so that students

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Quality of teaching in citizenship

can take more ownership of their own learning.  When teaching is weaker, it is often because teachers do not have sufficient subject knowledge to allow all students to make good progress. Sometimes lessons are too teacher-directed and planning is insufficient to facilitate meaningful independent, higher order thinking. Learning is less stimulating and engaging, thus behaviour is passive.

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Quality of the curriculum in citizenship

The quality of the curriculum in citizenship is good.

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Quality of the curriculum in citizenship

 The curriculum has recently been reviewed and the quality of provision has improved as a result. Citizenship is delivered through a range of subjects and a fortnightly ‘guidance’ lesson is taught in form groups.  Many students are positive about their learning in the subject. However, some students rightly commented that the quality of teaching is strongest through the cross-curricular delivery, where highly skilled teachers are confident with the full range and content. While some links are made between subjects these could be developed further to create more memorable learning experiences.  Good links with a variety of agencies enrich experiences of active participation.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management in citizenship

The effectiveness of leadership and management in citizenship is good.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management in citizenship

 You and your team are highly ambitious for citizenship within the school. Your evaluations have accurately identified assessment as an area for development and steps have been taken to improve this. A clearly shared common purpose of producing ‘responsible citizens’ underpins everything the school does.  The celebration of good citizenship is evident in the highly engaging range of photographs around the school aimed at maintaining high expectations and illustrating students of all abilities being successful and caring for others.  Although cross-curricular provision is monitored through the school’s quality-assurance procedures, opportunities are missed to apply the same rigour to the monitoring of guidance lessons.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, include:

 ensuring that students make good progress in every lesson by:  consistently using data about students’ abilities to plan appropriately challenging learning  sharing best practice in assessment  planning extended opportunities for independent learning  reinforcing cross-curricular themes to create more memorable learning experiences  enhancing leadership by:  monitoring the quality of provision more regularly, particularly through student voice  capitalising on teachers’ skills and subject knowledge. I hope that these observations are useful as you continue to develop citizenship 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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