Beverley Grammar School

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 4234 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Mr Gavin Chappell Headteacher Beverley Grammar School Queensgate Beverley HU17 8NF

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Short inspection of Beverley Grammar School

Following my visit to the school on 6 June 2018 with Peter Cole and Stephen Crossley, Ofsted Inspectors, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be good in April 2015. Beverley Grammar School has a split-site sixth form shared with Beverley High School.

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Short inspection of Beverley Grammar School

You and your leadership team have maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Based on the evidence gathered during this short inspection, I am of the opinion that the school has demonstrated strong practice and marked improvement in specific areas. This may indicate that the school has improved significantly overall. Therefore, I am recommending that the school’s next inspection be a section 5 inspection.

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Short inspection of Beverley Grammar School

You and your deputy head are the driving force for positive change in the school. You have tackled highly effectively the areas for improvement left at the time of the last inspection. Both of you have a very strong commitment to ensuring that teaching challenges all pupils to do their best, and you have a sharp focus on each pupil receiving the best quality education possible. Pupils, students and staff have risen to your high expectations. You have a highly effective review system which is able to quickly identify strengths and relative weaknesses. From this, you generate clear recommendations for staff. Staff respond well to these recommendations because they are coupled with bespoke, high-quality professional development. As a result, over time, teaching has challenged pupils more and the progress made by all groups of pupils and students has increased.

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Short inspection of Beverley Grammar School

Governors meet with departments regularly to review the effect of changes and to feed back their findings to the full governing body. As a result, the governing body is very well informed about what is happening in the school. The governing body has ensured that it has the skills and expertise it needs to support and challenge school leaders effectively.

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Short inspection of Beverley Grammar School

Your pupils and students are very proud of their school. They appreciate the support that they receive and the opportunities that they are given. In particular, pupils enjoy the challenge of achieving their house tie, commenting that it encouraged ‘friendly rivalry’. Around the school, pupils and students are polite to each other and to visitors. Pupils and students treat their environment with respect. Students in the sixth form stated that Beverley Grammar School is a school in which it is safe ‘to be who they are’. The behaviour policy is used effectively and, as a result, the school is a positive, safe working environment, where all are supported to do their very best.

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Short inspection of Beverley Grammar School

The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. There is a strong safeguarding culture, which permeates everything the school does. There are effective structures in place to ensure that pupils and students are safe. These are supported by high-quality training for staff, and regularly reinforced with the pupils and students through lessons and assemblies. Pupils and students stated that they are safe, and parents and carers, in the parental questionnaire, agreed. Bullying is very rare and pupils stated that when it happens, it is dealt with swiftly. Links with outside agencies are effective and used when required. Governors are also fully aware of their responsibilities with respect to safeguarding.

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Inspection findings

 In the 2016/17 academic year, disadvantaged pupils attended school less regularly than their peers. The school swiftly identified this and put in place a varied and determined strategy focused on improving the attendance and behaviour of this group of pupils. This strategy fully involved parents. As a result, the attendance of disadvantaged pupils has risen significantly. In classrooms, their behaviour is better and is line with that of their peers. As a result of improved attendance and better behaviour, the progress made by disadvantaged pupils has also increased.  At the time of the last inspection, pupils who entered the school with lower- and middle-ability levels made less progress than their peers. A very well thought- through strategy to ensure teaching challenged these pupils more was put in place. This strategy is backed up by high-quality, bespoke and valued professional development for teachers. This includes sharing effective practice

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Inspection findings

across the school through the teaching and learning communities. Learning support assistants (LSAs) have also received quality training to enable them to support pupils more effectively. The result of this training was seen in visits to lessons where LSAs were supporting and challenging pupils effectively. Dedicated improvement time, used by the pupils and students to review their work, is embedded well. Pupils and students use this time effectively and take the opportunity to work out how they can improve the standard of their work. As a result of these strategies, the progress made by not only the lower- and middle- ability pupils, but by all pupils, has increased. However, you are not complacent about the improvements made and have plans in place to further improve the quality of teaching.  In addition to improving the challenge provided for all pupils, you also reviewed the curriculum for middle- and lower-ability pupils to make sure it was

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Inspection findings

appropriate to their needs and enabled them to make the best possible progress. This was done in conjunction with parents. The new curriculum is more bespoke to the needs of each individual pupil, giving them more choice and enabling them to make more progress.  At the last inspection, the sixth form was identified as an area for improvement. Students’ attendance in the sixth form is now strong. As a result of effective careers advice before the students enter the sixth form, the proportion of students who complete their courses is considerably above the national average. The proportion who go on to further education, training or employment at the end of their time in the sixth form is also very high. Students enjoy the opportunities that they are given in the sixth form, which included completing the Extended Project Qualification and high-quality work experience, including, for some, the opportunity to work at the Houses of Parliament. The very small

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Inspection findings

number of students who need to resit their GCSE examinations in English and/or mathematics are given appropriate, and valued, support to do so. The governing body has taken the positive step of creating a joint governing body with the governing body at Beverley High School to ensure their full involvement in improving the sixth form. Over the past three years, the progress made by students in the sixth form has stayed steady. However, this year, as a result of focused improvements, current students are making much better progress. However, you are fully aware that the review system, fully embedded in Years 7 to 11, is not as effective in the sixth form.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:

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Next steps for the school

 the school’s review system is fully embedded into the sixth form to ensure that all students continue to make better progress  the strategies to ensure that teaching challenges all pupils and students to make better progress are continued.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for East Riding of Yorkshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During the inspection, we met with you, members of your senior leadership team and members of the governing body. We met with pupils formally, and spoke with many pupils informally at social times. We visited a number of lessons in a range of subjects and in different year groups. All of these visits were carried out with members of the senior leadership team. Pupils’ work was looked at to consider their progress over time. We looked at documentation concerning the quality of teaching, the progress made by different groups of pupils, behaviour, attendance and safeguarding. The school’s website was also reviewed. The 120 responses to Parent View, the 57 responses to the staff questionnaire and the school’s own information on parents’ views were all taken into account.

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