Cullompton Community College

Inspection of Cullompton Community College Exeter Road, Cullompton, Devon EX15 1DX

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Inspection dates: 13 and 14 September 2022

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Overall effectiveness Good

The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Good Previous inspection grade Good 13 and 14 September 2022

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What is it like to attend this school?

Relationships between staff and pupils are warm and respectful. As a result, pupils feel safe and enjoy attending this school. Leaders want the best for pupils. They have high expectations for pupils’ learning and wider development.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils make an important contribution to the life of the school. There are captains, vice-captains and prefects for different areas, such as community and sustainability. Those with leadership roles speak with pride about their responsibilities. Pupils feel that staff listen to them and act on their ideas.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils behave well. Those who need help with their behaviour receive the right support. Overall, pupils have positive attitudes towards their learning. Sometimes, however, teaching does not meet some pupils’ needs. When this is the case, pupils struggle to learn as well as they could. This also affects their attitudes to learning.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy a wide range of clubs and societies. They feel empowered to lead their own initiatives. For example, some groups of pupils promote awareness of global issues. Others champion well-being.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils say that bullying is rare. When it does occur, the school deals with it effectively and quickly most of the time. Pupils learn to respect people from other backgrounds and how to treat everyone equally.

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better?

Leaders have designed a curriculum which sets out precisely what pupils should learn. The curriculum is carefully planned so it builds on what pupils have learned previously. Leaders keep the curriculum closely under review and make changes to it where necessary. Each part of the curriculum prepares pupils for the next stage in their education.

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better?

Leaders are ambitious for pupils. This includes those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and disadvantaged pupils. The suite of subjects, known as the English Baccalaureate, is at the heart of leaders’ ambition for the key stage 4 curriculum. Improvements to the teaching of the curriculum at key stage 3 are preparing pupils to follow a broad curriculum in key stage 4 successfully.

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better?

Teachers are subject experts and present information clearly. They use teaching approaches that support most pupils to remember important knowledge. Teachers use assessment effectively to check that pupils have learned the curriculum. This enables them to identify misconceptions and correct them. Nonetheless, teachers do not use this information as consistently as they could to inform future planning.

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better?

Leaders share useful information with teachers about how to best support pupils with their learning. At times, however, teaching does not meet the needs of some 13 and 14 September 2022

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pupils well enough. This includes pupils with SEND or who are disadvantaged. Consequently, a minority of pupils do not learn as well as they could. This also results in these pupils displaying less positive attitudes to learning.

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Leaders provide support for those pupils who are at the early stages of reading. However, this is not consistently successful in improving pupils’ fluency and accuracy. As a result, these pupils are not able to learn as much of the wider curriculum as they could.

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Leaders have designed a detailed personal, social, health and economic education curriculum. This is carefully planned to help pupils develop an age-appropriate understanding of relationships and how to keep safe. At times, though, the curriculum is not as well implemented as leaders intend. Leaders have made recent changes to the way the curriculum is delivered to support pupils better.

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Pupils receive effective careers information, education and guidance. They take part in meaningful work experience opportunities. These help to prepare pupils for the next steps in their education, employment or training.

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Governors have a clear vision for the quality of education provided by school. They hold leaders to account and provide support. This has enhanced the effectiveness of the school. Leaders are considerate of staff workload and well-being. They take into account the main pressures on staff and provide effective support for those newest to teaching.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders work tirelessly to secure the help that pupils need. They are tenacious and are prepared to challenge if help is not forthcoming. Leaders make timely referrals to safeguarding partners and collaborate effectively with external partners.

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Safeguarding

Staff know how to identify pupils who are at risk. They receive regular training that ensures safeguarding maintains a high profile. Pupils learn about safeguarding risks through the school’s curriculum, including online risks and how to keep mentally healthy.

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Safeguarding

The school has suitable policies in place to raise awareness among staff and parents about the dangers of sexual harassment, online sexual abuse and sexual violence. 13 and 14 September 2022

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 For a minority of pupils, the teaching of the curriculum does not meet their needs well enough. Consequently, these pupils do not learn the curriculum as successfully as they could. Leaders need to ensure that teaching meets the needs of all pupils consistently.  The reading curriculum is not fully effective for pupils in the early stages of reading. As a result, many pupils do not gain the knowledge required to read accurately and fluently. Leaders need to improve the early reading curriculum to ensure that every pupil has the foundations for future learning.

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How can I feed back my views?

or to find out what other parents and carers think. We use information from Ofsted Parent View when deciding which schools to inspect, when to inspect them and as part of their inspection.

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How can I feed back my views?

The Department for Education has further guidance on how to complain about a school.

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Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

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Further information

In the report, 'disadvantaged pupils' refers to those pupils who attract government pupil premium funding: pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years and pupils in care or who left care through adoption or another formal route. 13 and 14 September 2022

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School details

Inspection number 10240163 Type of school Secondary Comprehensive School category Foundation

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Date of previous inspection 14 March 2017

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Information about this school

 The headteacher was appointed in September 2022.  A new chair of governors took up the role in the summer term of 2022.  The school uses three registered alternative providers and two unregistered providers.  The school meets the requirements of the Baker Clause, which requires schools to provide pupils in Years 8 to 13 with information about approved technical education qualifications and apprenticeships.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this graded inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Information about this inspection

 This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with leaders and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school. 13 and 14 September 2022

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 Inspectors held discussions with the headteacher, members of the senior leadership team, curriculum leaders and the chair of the governing body.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: English, mathematics, computer science, history and modern foreign languages. For each deep dive, inspectors discussed the curriculum with subject leaders, looked at curriculum planning, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, inspectors scrutinised the single central record of adults working in the school. The lead inspector met with the designated safeguarding leader to consider how well the school identifies pupils who are at risk and engages with external services. Inspectors spoke with a range of pupils and staff about safeguarding.  Inspectors considered responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View, including

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free-text comments. Inspectors also considered responses to Ofsted’s online staff survey and to the online pupil survey.  The lead inspector spoke to leaders from the alternative providers used by the school and to local authority staff.

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Inspection team

James Oldham, lead inspector His Majesty's Inspector

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Inspection team

Susan Aykin His Majesty's Inspector 13 and 14 September 2022

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regulates and inspects to 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, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children's services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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