Shevington High School

Shevington High School Shevington Lane, Wigan, Lancashire, WN6 8AB

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 This inspection: Good 2 Achievement of pupils Good 2 Quality of teaching Good 2 Behaviour and safety of pupils Good 2 Leadership and management Good 2

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school.  Students behave extremely well in lessons and around the school; they are very respectful to each other and their teachers and have a positive attitude to learning.  The curriculum provides an excellent range of options for students of all abilities, with increasing opportunities for choice of subjects and specialisation to meet individual needs.  Strategies to improve the literacy of targeted students are creative and effective.  The majority of students, including those with disabilities or special educational needs, exceed their targets in mathematics and English.  The ambition of leaders and managers to pursue excellence alongside an ethos of respect and caring is shared by staff and students, resulting in a safe and harmonious school where teaching is effective and students make good progress.  Governors are well-informed and provide effective support and challenge while holding the leadership to account.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Students who are known to be eliglible for free school meals, although in-line with the national average, achieve less well than others in the school.  While much of the teaching is good or outstanding, not all teachers use questioning effectively to promote learning and in some lessons students have too few opportunities to work independently.  Not all teachers ensure that work in lessons matches the ability of the students.  Students have limited cultural knowledge and experience of local, national and global communities different from their own.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 32 lessons, an assembly, tutorials and extra-curricular activities.  Discussions were held with the Chair and vice chair of the Governing Body, and a representative of the local authority. Meetings were held with senior leaders, staff and students. Inspectors took account of the 22 on-line questionnaires (Parent View) and the 24 staff questionnaires.  The inspection team observed the schools’ work and looked at documentation, including records of the monitoring of teaching, the school improvement plan, records relating to safeguarding, published data and school data regarding students’ attainment and progress, and students’ work.

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Inspection team

Janet Palmer, Lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector John Peckham Her Majesty’s Inspector Jane Holmes Additional Inspector Johan MacKinnon Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 The school is smaller than the average size secondary school. Almost all of its students are of White British heritage. Very few are from minority ethnic groups or speak English as an additional language.  The proportion of students known to be eligible for the pupil premium is above the national average.  The proportion of disabled students and those with special educational needs, including those supported by school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs, is above the national average.  Approximately 13% of students in Year 11 study vocational courses at Training for Today, Pro Co North West and the Western Skills Centre.  As the result of the closure of a local school, Shevington High accepted over 50 students into Years 10 and 11 in 2010 and 2011.  The headteacher retired in July and is currently assisting the acting headteacher in a consultative role until the headteacher post is filled in January 2013.

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Information about this school

 The school holds a number of awards and commendations, including the Artsmark Gold.  The school meets the current government floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for students’ attainment and progress.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Close the gap between the achievements of students known to be in receipt of the pupil premium and others in the school by targeting resources effectively.  Increase the proportion of good and outstanding lessons by:  ensuring the work is sufficiently challenging to meet all students’ needs  ensuring all teachers use questioning effectively to assess the effectiveness of their teaching and promote learning  enabling students to take ownership of their learning by working more independently.  Improve students’ cultural knowledge and understanding by providing opportunities for them to learn about and meet with people from backgrounds different to their own.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Students enter the school with knowledge, skills and understanding that are broadly in-line with the national average. Overall, they make expected levels of progress by the time they leave. However, in English, mathematics and languages they exceed expectations. In the lessons observed the majority of students made good or outstanding progress.  In recent years the percentage of students attaining five or more A* to C grades at GCSE, including mathematics and English, has been consistently above the national average and improving.  In 2012, students exceeded their targets in Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 although GCSE results dipped to broadly in-line with the national average. This is as a result of Shevington High accommodating large numbers of students into Key Stage 4 from a closing school who had lower than average levels of attainment when they joined the school.  Students achieve particularly well in art and design, science, French and mathematics where

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The achievement of pupils is good

many attain the highest grades.  Disabled students and those supported by school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs make good progress. This is because the school has a good range of intervention strategies to support students, particularly those who are struggling to improve their literacy skills.  Those students eligible for pupil premium achieve in–line with similar students nationally but they do not achieve as well as students in the school who are not eligible for pupil premium. Despite resources from the pupil premium being targeted at underachieving groups, the school has yet to significantly close the gap between the overall performance of this group and their peers.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Much good and outstanding teaching was observed during the inspection. Teachers meet the teachers’ standards and there is a clear correlation between good teaching and the good progress made by students.  In the very large majority of lessons the climate for learning is excellent. Students are punctual, attentive and keen to learn.  In the best lessons, students’ progress is enhanced by well planned support from teaching assistants and suitably adapted materials for students requiring extra help, high expectations of students’ work, and highly skilled sequencing of learning.  Teachers have good subject knowledge enabling them to respond well when students ask questions, which they frequently do. However, too few teachers use questioning to assess the depth of students’ knowledge and understanding and challenge them further in their thinking.  Information and communication technology (ICT) is used effectively, in particular the use of

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The quality of teaching is good

interactive whiteboards which adds interest, pace and challenge to lessons.  In most of the lessons seen, teachers made good use of assessment data; students knew what level they were working at and what they needed to do in order to improve, although this was not fully consistent in all lessons.  Teachers are aware of the abilities and learning needs of individual students in their classes, although not all accounted for this in their lesson planning. As a result, for some the work was too difficult, and for others insufficiently challenging.  The most effective teachers provide significant opportunities for students to work independently. However, this was not a feature of the majority of lessons. Students’ views confirmed inspectors’ observations of too much passive learning where teachers dominated the discussion.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 The behaviour of students in classes and around the school is extremely good, requiring only minimal adult supervision. Students are typically polite, respectful and kind; they have very good relationships with their teachers and other adults, and go out of their way to be helpful.  The very large majority of parents and carers who responded to the on-line questionnaire agreed that their child was well looked after in the school and that the school ensured good behaviour. Students told us they feel safe in school. The experience of those who attend vocational courses off-site is well monitored to ensure they too feel safe.  From discussions with the students, inspectors found bullying is clearly not an issue in the school. Students understand very well that name-calling related to a person’s race, religion, sexuality, appearance, or for any other reason, is unacceptable and they do not expect to

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

hear such language in or around the school.  Senior students in Year 11 enjoy undertaking responsibility for the welfare of younger students by helping them with their homework diaries and making themselves available during tutorial time to discuss problems. The peer-reading scheme successfully encourages pupils of all ages to work with others to improve their literacy and enjoyment of books.  Students are aware of how to keep themselves safe, particularly when using the internet and social networking sites. This is due to the extensive work the school has done to promote e- safety.  Data shows attendance to be close to the national average overall, as are exclusions. The rate of absence and exclusions increased in 2011 after large numbers of students joined the school mid-term from a closing school. Students who had been previously excluded or poor attenders spoke very positively to inspectors about the pastoral support they had received to

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

help them to improve their behaviour and attend regularly.  Absence and exclusion figures show that there is an over-representation of those known to be eligible for pupil premium. Although broadly in-line with the national average, rates of exclusion and absence are higher than other students in the school. Academic and pastoral leaders have strategies in place to address this but they are yet to show a positive impact on the data.  Students are punctual to lessons and ready to begin working straight away.

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The leadership and management are good

 Staff, parents and students recognise and appreciate the passionate commitment of the leadership team to enabling the best for students at Shevington High. The Shevington Vision statement, ‘All different, all equal, taking pride, succeeding together, meeting the future’ is evident throughout the work of the school.  New accountability processes have brought greater consistency to the monitoring and evaluation of the quality of teaching. The monitoring is more robust and includes a detailed analysis of examination results as well as listening to the views of the students. However, in some cases the school’s evaluation of teaching performance has been over-generous.  An improved programme of self-evaluation is in place across the school. However, the outcomes of evaluation have not been effectively integrated into sharply focused whole- school development planning.  Staff appreciate the opportunities they have to undertake further training for their

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The leadership and management are good

professional development. Teachers find the local authority subject networks useful in enabling them to keep up to date with developments in their subjects and some imaginative professional development activities such as peer mentoring and shared observations have enabled them to learn from best practice.  Effective partnership with external agencies ensures good care, guidance and support for students whose circumstances make them vulnerable. Links with local colleges of further education and vocational centres promote students’ learning and help them to make suitable educational and career choices.  The curriculum is a very strong feature of the school. The commitment to meeting individual needs begins with the careful grouping of students in Key Stage 3 through the ‘Pathways’ model and enrichment programme, ensuring a suitable range of learning opportunities. Off- site vocational opportunities at Key Stage 4 enable students to engage in extended projects

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The leadership and management are good

and gain accreditation.  The school is appropriately focused on ensuring all students, including the most able, make good progress. Early examination entry in some subjects such as information and communication technology (ICT) has been used appropriately to support breadth of learning and has not compromised the opportunities for students to gain the highest grades.  The wider interests of students are met through the extensive programme of extra-curricular activities. These include many subject-related clubs, such as ‘let’s get cooking’ and product design and graphics; sports such as badminton, dodge ball and Judo; performing arts including the show band, chamber choir and drama club; and other activities such as the chess and polyglotz clubs.  The range of good curricular and extra-curricular opportunities contributes to the students’ good spiritual, moral and social development. Their cultural development is evident in their

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The leadership and management are good

willingness to participate in, and respond to artistic, musical and scientific cultural opportunities. There are, however, too few opportunities for students to develop their cultural awareness through direct experience of different religious, ethnic and socio-economic groups in local and wider communities.  The pupil premium funding is used effectively to ensure that all students, regardless of their home circumstances, are able to access the wider range of curricular opportunities, such as visits to the theatre, museums and restaurants.  Leaders, managers and governors ensure that effective arrangements are in place to safeguard students in the school. Processes are in place to ensure safe recruitment, including safer recruitment training for staff and governors; and good curricular provision helps students develop safe practices in sexual health, substance misuse and e-safety.  The school welcomes the support from the local authority, particularly through the continued

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The leadership and management are good

opportunities for subject professional development.  The school’s capacity to improve further is good.  The governance of the school:  governance is strong. Members of the governing body are sufficiently skilled and experienced to provide very effective challenge and support to the school and the leadership team  the Chair and other members of the governing body are confidently able to analyse and interpret the school’s performance data and provide good levels of scrutiny  the governing body employ a range of effective informal mechanisms to monitor the views of students and parents. They attend departmental and faculty meetings and have formal links to the student council through a student governor.

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Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding An outstanding school is highly effective in delivering outcomes that provide exceptionally well for all its pupils’ needs. This ensures that pupils are very well equipped for the next stage of their education, training or employment. Grade 2 Good A good school is effective in delivering outcomes that provide well for all its pupils’ needs. Pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education, training or employment. Grade 3 Requires improvement A school that requires improvement is not yet a good school, but it is not inadequate. This school will receive a full inspection within 24 months from the date of this inspection. Grade 4 Inadequate A school that has serious weaknesses is inadequate overall and requires significant improvement but leadership and management are judged to be Grade 3 or better. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors. A school that requires special measures is one where the school is

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Grade Judgement Description

failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the school’s leaders, managers or governors have not demonstrated that they have the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors.

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School details

Unique reference number 106529 Local authority Wigan Inspection number 403019

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School details

This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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School details

Type of school Secondary School category Community Age range of pupils 11-16 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 649 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Michelle Foster Headteacher Peter Jones (Acting) Date of previous school inspection 17 January 2008 Telephone number 01257 400990 Fax number 01257 400992 Email address enquiries@shevingtonhigh.org.uk guidance ‘raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234 , or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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School details

You can use Parent View to give Ofsted your opinion on your child’s school. Ofsted will use the information parents and carers provide when deciding which schools to inspect and when and as part of the inspection.

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School details

You can also use Parent View to find out what other parents and carers think about schools in England. You can visit www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk, or look for the link on the main Ofsted website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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School details

achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work- based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection. Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please

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School details

telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way. To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’.

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School details

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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