Bishop Perowne CofE College

Inspection of Bishop Perowne CofE College Merriman’s Hill Road, Worcester, Worcestershire WR3 8LE

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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

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Overall effectiveness Good

The headteacher of this school is Jane Price. This school is a single academy trust. The trust is overseen by a board of governors, chaired by Anita Iddon. 5 and 6 March 2024

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What is it like to attend this school?

Bishop Perowne CofE College is an inclusive school. Pupils feel safe in school. They know a trusted adult will listen to them and provide support.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school has high expectations of what pupils can do. Pupils live up to these. Their positive attitudes create a calm and well-ordered school. Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), are eager to learn. Teachers build on this enthusiasm to help pupils remember important knowledge. As a result, pupils achieve well.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Most pupils attend school each day. Staff work effectively with many pupils and their families to improve attendance. However, the school’s oversight of why some pupils are often absent is not clear. These pupils’ attendance is not improving and gaps in their knowledge widen.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school offers pupils a thoughtfully constructed personal development and enrichment curriculum. Pupils can marvel at the wonders of a live orchestral performance. They can join in a diverse range of fun and friendly team-building and problem-solving challenges. Their engagement in sporting events is inspired by female sporting role models. Pupils enjoy working together. They say everyone is welcome. These experiences make this school a close-knit community, where pupils’ well-being matters.

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better?

Pupils follow a broad and ambitious curriculum. For instance, they can study two modern foreign languages. Pupils who speak English as an additional language master English quickly. Many of them then choose to study a further language. These opportunities have accelerated pupils’ uptake of the English Baccalaureate. This well-designed curriculum has subsequently bolstered pupils’ post-16 academic study options.

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better?

The school has sequenced its curriculum content well. Teachers have strong subject knowledge and know what to teach and how to teach it effectively. Pupils receive clear guidance and instructions about lesson tasks. Their teachers use ‘visualisers’ to model new learning, which help pupils to retain knowledge. Teachers deliberately check disadvantaged pupils’ understanding first. This approach gives these pupils immediate feedback, which irons out any misconceptions. Teachers’ timely interventions help these pupils to consolidate key knowledge. As a result, pupils remember what they have been taught and apply this well with new tasks.

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better?

The school identifies the needs of pupils with SEND accurately. Staff know how to support these pupils well. Staff adapt tasks to help pupils deepen their knowledge and produce high-quality work. 5 and 6 March 2024

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The school provides effective support for pupils who struggle to read. Trained staff teach pupils the skills to read the same lesson material as their peers. As a result, they soon become confident and fluent readers.

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The school has worked hard to improve pupils’ behaviour. Staff reward those who meet the school’s high expectations with achievement points. The more points secured, the more privileges a pupil receives. This recognition motivates pupils to be the best they can be.

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Pupils’ attendance at school is improving. The school’s tailored support for many pupils has increased their attendance. However, a small number of pupils still have low attendance rates. Recent checks show that these pupils’ absences are not coded correctly. This prevents the school’s accurate identification and analysis of the reasons for these absences.

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The school offers pupils memorable personal development lessons. For instance, they learn from guest speakers about Holocaust Memorial Day and Black History month. Tutorials focus on topical issues such as cyber-bullying, diversity and conflict. These sessions help to deepen pupils’ knowledge about equal rights. They also remind everyone to be kind and not mean. As a result, pupils are well prepared for community life in modern Britain.

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Pupils benefit from a comprehensive and engaging careers curriculum. They are well-informed about a wide range of career options. This prepares pupils well for their next steps.

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Staff value the school’s effective actions to restructure the curriculum. This has addressed disadvantaged pupils’ lower performance in recent external examinations. These pupils now make strong progress in their lessons. Staff are proud to work here. Their morale is high.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The school does not code absences correctly for some pupils who are often absent. This means that the school is unclear about the potential barriers these pupils face. The school should put in place clear systems to identify the reasons for absence and code these correctly, and use this information well to take appropriate and well-focused actions to improve attendance where needed. 5 and 6 March 2024

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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 ’ is used to mean pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND); pupils who meet the definition of children in need of help and protection ; pupils receiving statutory local authority support from a social worker; and pupils who otherwise meet the criteria used for deciding the school’s pupil premium funding (this includes pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years, looked after children (children in local authority care) and/or children who left care through adoption or another formal route). 5 and 6 March 2024

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School details

Number of pupils on the school roll 1120

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School details

Appropriate authority The governing body

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School details

Date of previous inspection 16 October 2018, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school is a standalone academy trust.  The school uses four registered and five unregistered alternative providers.  This is a Church of England school in the Diocese of Worcester. A Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools was carried out in July 2018. These inspections are normally carried out every five years.  The school meets the requirements of the provider access legislation, which requires schools to provide pupils in Years 8 to 13 with information and engagement 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

 Inspections are a point-in-time judgement about the quality of a school’s education provision. 5 and 6 March 2024

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 This was the first routine inspection the school had received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors met with the headteacher, governors and other senior leaders, including the three deputy headteachers and the coordinator of the provision for pupils with SEND.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: English, mathematics, science, modern foreign languages, music and geography. For each deep dive, inspectors held discussions about the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  Inspectors met with groups of pupils from a range of year groups, including disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND, about their experiences in school. They spoke with pupils informally and observed the behaviour of pupils during

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social times.  Inspectors met with senior leaders to review the alternative providers used by the school.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the lead inspector: reviewed the single central record; took account of the views of leaders, staff and pupils; and considered the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.  Inspectors reviewed responses to Ofsted’s Parent View, responses to the staff survey and responses to the pupil survey.  Inspectors reviewed a range of documentation relating to the school.

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Inspection team

Antony Edkins, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Gwen Onyon Ofsted Inspector 5 and 6 March 2024

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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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