Moor Park High School

School report Moor Park High School and Sixth Form Moor Park Avenue, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 6DT

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Outstanding 1 This inspection: Good 2 Leadership and management Good 2 Behaviour and safety of pupils Good 2 Quality of teaching Good 2 Achievement of pupils Good 2 Sixth form provision Good 2

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Students make good progress overtime in English. Progress is improving across a broad range of subjects. Achievement gaps between different groups of students are narrowing quickly.  The quality of teaching and learning is usually good with some outstanding teaching.  Students’ behaviour is good and they demonstrate a high degree of respect for each other and adults. Students work hard and cooperatively. They exhibit a strong commitment and keen application to learning.  Attendance has improved and is now average.  Students’ social, moral, spiritual and cultural development is strong. The school provides a safe, harmonious and inclusive environment for students.  The leadership of the school is highly focused on improvement and raising expectations. All staff embrace this improvement culture. Middle leaders make an effective contribution to driving forward improvements.  Governors offer strong and well informed challenge

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Not all teaching and learning is consistently good or better.  Marking in a few classes does not support all students towards their next steps in learning.  While progress in mathematics has risen over time, it declined in 2014.  Progress for less able students needs to be more rapidly accelerated in Years 10 and 11.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed teaching and learning in 36 parts of lessons taught by 32 teachers. Two of the observations were carried out jointly with senior leaders.  Inspectors looked closely at samples of students’ written work across a range of subjects and year groups. They also watched behaviour around the school.  Inspectors held meetings with senior and middle leaders, a group of teachers, three groups of students, two members of the governing body including the Chair and a representative of the local authority.  Inspectors scrutinised a wide range of documentation including: self-evaluation and development plan summaries; data relating to students’ attainment and progress; information on attendance; documents and records about behaviour and safeguarding; records of the monitoring of teaching and learning and of performance management and minutes of meetings of the governing body.

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Inspection team

Patrick Geraghty, Lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Information about this school

 Moor Park is smaller than the average sized secondary school.  Over half the students are disadvantaged and supported through the pupil premium, which is high compared with most schools. The pupil premium is additional funding for those students who are known to be eligible for free school meals and those who are looked after by the local authority.  The proportion of students from minority ethnic backgrounds is above average. The majority of these students are of Pakistani and Indian heritage.  The proportion of students who speak English as an additional language is well above average.  The proportion supported by school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is well above average.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards which are the minimum expectations for students’ attainment and progress.  The school offers alternative provision for a small number of students.

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Information about this school

 There were 13 responses from parents to the on-line questionnaire (Parent View). Inspectors also looked carefully at summaries of responses from parents to questionnaires returned to the school in recent years.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching that requires improvement so that it is good and increase the amount of outstanding teaching by ensuring that all teachers: - access and use information about students to set work at the right level - develop the use of their questioning skills so that all students have opportunities to develop their reasoning, spoken language and extend their thinking - plan lessons using assessment information that will support and challenge all students - provide helpful comments in marked work on how to improve and check whether students have acted on previous advice.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve some students’ achievement more rapidly at Key Stage 4, and particularly in mathematics, by: - ensuring that teachers have sufficiently high expectations for all students’ attainment and progress - continuing to close the gaps in achievement for White British boys - enabling lower ability students to make more rapid progress at Key Stage 4 and particularly in mathematics.

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The leadership and management are good

 The headteacher, supported by his senior managers and staff, promotes an aspirational, caring and questioning culture. By adopting such an approach, he has guided the school through a period where students’ progress and attitudes have improved. The school is a harmonious and lively learning community. Students work freely and productively together across different ability and ethnic heritage groups.  Self-evaluation is honest, self-critical and accurate. Senior leaders know what the school does well and where it could and should be doing better. Development planning for future success is clear and sharp. Self-evaluation is sharply focused on how best to tackle underperformance and further accelerate achievement for all students. The analysis and evaluation of data to inform improvement is strong. There is a consistency in the application of policies and procedures.  The management of teaching and learning is bringing about improvement to the quality of teaching.

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The leadership and management are good

Leaders and managers check on the quality of teaching regularly. They use the outcomes astutely to target areas that require improvement and provide good support and training. However, managers acknowledge that there remains some teaching and learning that requires improvement. Leaders are aware of the need to further accelerate attainment and progress for less able students at Key Stage 4 and especially in mathematics.  Middle leaders work well together to promote the best practice and consistency in teaching quality across the curriculum.  Performance management is increasingly robust. Performance management and professional development are used to support and challenge teachers whose work has been judged as weak. Staff and managers are held to account for their performance.  The curriculum is broad and balanced at Key Stage 4 with clear academic and bespoke vocational pathways. The Key Stage 3 curriculum has a strong focus on accelerating student progress given the low

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The leadership and management are good

prior attainment on entry of many students. A high percentage of students progress to post-16 studies.  The school has forged very good relationships with parents and with the local community that it serves. Partnerships with external agencies are very strong and effective and used well to promote the best outcomes for students. The school plays an active part in promoting and preparing its students for life in modern Britain.  Equality and diversity are promoted well across school provision. The school places a strong focus on the care and support of disadvantaged students. Gaps in achievement between different groups of students are closing rapidly. However, this needs to be further accelerated with respect to White British boys. In 2013/14, gaps between the attainment of disadvantaged students and their peers closed significantly.  The local authority provides effective support for the school.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school meets its statutory requirements for safeguarding students, including for those accessing off- site provision.  The governance of the school:  Governors know the school well and have a strong commitment to its improvement. They have a critical view of the school’s performance set against national trends.  Governors use data well to assess performance and have a good grasp of the need to improve standards and narrow the gaps between distinctive groups of students.  Governors have a good understanding of the pupil premium, how it works and its impact on students’ performance. They increasingly hold senior leaders to account for the performance of the school.  Governors are fully aware of how the school is attempting to improve the quality of teaching and learning.  Governors ensure that all safeguarding requirements are met.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 The behaviour of students is good. Students play a key role in making the school a harmonious place to work and be in. They have positive attitudes to each other and to the adults. They look after the school and contribute to its tidy and orderly environment. One boy summarised the views of the many: `I want to be here; we all want to be here because we learn and have fun and enjoy each other’s company.’ This positive approach pervades the school. The working relationships of students of all ethnic heritage backgrounds are exemplary.  The number of students being excluded either permanently or for a fixed amount of time is low. School records show that there have been very few instances of bullying or racism in recent years and that appropriate action has been taken in response when incidents do occur. School behaviour procedures are consistently applied across all classes.  The school’s work to keep students safe and secure is good. Procedures and policies for safeguarding are

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

fully in place and are reviewed regularly by senior leaders and the governing body. Staff receive appropriate training in managing students’ behaviour and in safeguarding. The school works very well with a number of agencies to support disadvantaged students and those requiring additional pastoral support.  Students say they feel very safe within the school environment. Students are fully aware of how to use the internet safely and also of the possible dangers of social media websites. Students have great confidence in teachers and the adults who care for them.  The school promotes students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well within the curriculum and especially through very good provision in citizenship and religious education.  Increasingly, students are willing to take on a variety of responsibilities such as student ‘angels’; a support scheme where older students are responsible for the mentoring of younger students. The physical well-

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

being of students is promoted through the curriculum and numerous extra-curricular sports activities.  The response of parents to school questionnaires demonstrates that the vast majority of parents are satisfied with the quality of behaviour at the school.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Much teaching is good and some is outstanding. Relationships are strong and positive. Students want to learn, are keen to participate and make good progress. A small amount of teaching requires improvement.  Learning is most effective where teachers plan activities effectively with a sharp focus on the progress they expect their students to make. Independent learning skills are well promoted. Students worked collaboratively in pairs and groups relishing activities that enhance their problem solving and deeper thinking skills. Homework is used well and regularly and successfully complements classwork.  In well planned lessons, students are enabled to explore and develop their own solutions and ideas leading to a fuller and deeper understanding of the topics. Excellent teaching and learning was observed in modern foreign language, music, and English.  The best learning was exemplified in a music lesson on the lyrics of ‘blues’ music. After a highly

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The quality of teaching is good

informative introduction the teacher initiated group work by asking leaders to emerge and chose their groups. This was rapidly done. Groups cut across ability and ethnic heritage categories. Groups were hardworking, cooperative and task driven. Tasks were completed and the finished results clearly demonstrated that students had grasped the essence of the topic.  Students are not always sufficiently challenged to develop independent learning skills. Opportunities to work collaboratively or reinforce learning were limited. In these lessons, activities are not always appropriately designed to ensure that all students benefit fully and make sufficient progress.  On occasions, teachers’ questioning was weak. Teachers expected and accepted one-word answers and did not seek to check students’ understanding and develop students’ speaking and reasoning skills. Consequently, opportunities to extend students’ speaking abilities and confidence were not fully exploited.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Students’ work is marked regularly. There remain some inconsistencies in the quality of marking. Marking is less strong where there was little evidence of teachers’ follow-up to assess improvement and chart students’ progress. There was an absence of clear pointers to the next steps to improvement.  There is a strong focus on literacy to improve reading and writing across the curriculum. Good development of subject specific vocabulary was evident in many lessons.  There is good deployment of teaching assistants to support individual learning needs.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Students enter the school with ability levels which are well below those nationally. In most years, over 50% of students enter having made progress well below that expected. Many students enter with very low reading ages and poor numeracy skills. A small minority of students enter with above expected progress. Given these low starting points, the majority of students leave having made good progress.  School data and inspection evidence confirm that students make good progress at Key Stage 3. Focused intervention in reading has accelerated students’ reading ages and literacy skills. Most students continued to progress well at Key Stage 4, although for some less able students the rate of progress slows. Leaders are aware of this and have implemented strategies to accelerate progress more rapidly. Inspection evidence suggests these strategies are impacting and that these students are beginning to making better

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The achievement of pupils is good

progress.  The percentage of students making expected progress in English has increased significantly over the last three years. This year-on-year improvement is also reflected in mathematics with the exception of 2013/14. Senior leaders are aware of the reasons for this and have moved swiftly to tackle staff issues in mathematics. Inspection evidence suggests that most current students are now making better progress in mathematics.  In recent years, the percentage of students attaining five or more GCSE passes at grades A* to C, including English and mathematics, has risen. Unvalidated data for 2013/14 suggests the percentage has moved closer to the national average. Inspection evidence from analysing school data, discussions with students, observing lessons and from scrutiny of written work shows that the upward trend is set to continue so as to be at national levels by 2015.  Gaps in achievement between different groups of students are narrowing. The achievement gap for those

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The achievement of pupils is good

students known to be supported by the pupil premium has narrowed rapidly. The school has now largely closed the attainment gap between disadvantaged students and their classmates. The school has established effective systems to target those students for additional support.  There is strong promotion of the development of students’ reading, writing and mathematical skills in Years 7 and 8. School data indicate that currently students make good progress in developing their reading, writing and mathematical skills given their starting points on entry.  The most able students make good progress in English, mathematics and across a broad range of subjects. Eighty-five per cent of students in 2013 progressed to full-time courses at Further Education Colleges, Sixth Form Colleges or the school’s new Sixth Form Centre. Others progressed onto apprenticeships, work skills programmes and employment.  Focused support in the classroom for disabled students and those with special educational needs results in

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The achievement of pupils is good

these students making the same progress as other students. In particular, these students make good progress in developing their reading skills.

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The sixth form provision is good

 The effectiveness of sixth form provision is good. The school sixth form is now in its second year. It remains a small but expanding sixth form that offers mostly academic courses at GCE AS and A-level as well as two advanced vocational courses. It is housed in newly built and well resourced facilities.  Monitoring and tracking systems are effective in checking students’ progress and informing where additional learning support is needed. Teachers’ performance is effectively monitored and professional development is well focused. Managers know where they need to improve. Improvement planning is sharply focused on promoting high quality learning. There are very effective advice and guidance systems on entry to the sixth form and in promoting students’ understanding of progression and destination opportunities. Governors are highly committed to the development of sixth-form provision.  Students are engaged in a harmonious and hardworking learning environment. Good and effective

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The sixth form provision is good

systems for academic and personal tutoring have been established. Students feel safe and are well prepared in tutorial groups on safeguarding and welfare matters. The tutorial programme and curriculum enables them to deepen their understanding of life in modern Britain. Attendance rates are good and retention rates for the first year were at 100%.  Teaching is good overall with some that is outstanding. Creative and well paced activities engage students, and learning is effectively extended to support good and sometimes excellent progress. Students’ interaction is good and they collaborate well in class to support each other’s learning. In a few weaker lessons, teachers have still to successfully adapt their teaching to sixth-form demands and especially in promoting discussion and the development of deeper and more challenging thinking.  The only published examination results are for GCE AS subjects for 2013/14. Pass rates were just below

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The sixth form provision is good

the national average. School evidence and external value added systems indicate that the majority of students made good progress and some made outstanding progress. Results and progress in some subjects were outstanding. In a few subjects, results were below national averages. For 2014/15 the GCSE grade entrance requirement for some courses has been increased.

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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 failing

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Grade Judgement Description

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 119773 Local authority Lancashire Inspection number 447763

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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 Foundation Age range of pupils 11–18 Gender of pupils Mixed Gender of pupils in the sixth form Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 580 Of which, number on roll in sixth form 50 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Keith Nightingdale Headteacher Peter Cunningham Date of previous school inspection 9 February 2011 Telephone number 01772 795428 Fax number 01772 653912 Email address admin@moorpark.lancs.sch.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 and 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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