Cleeve School

Inspection of Cleeve School Two Hedges Road, Bishops Cleeve, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL52 8AE

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Inspection dates: 14 and 15 January 2025

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The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Outstanding Leadership and management Good Sixth-form provision Outstanding Previous inspection grade Good

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The executive headteacher of this school is Alwyn Richards. This school is part of Cleeve School Trust, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school. The trust is run by the chief executive officer, Alwyn Richards, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Louisa Trunks. 14 and 15 January 2025

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What is it like to attend this school?

Cleeve is an aspirational school for its pupils. Expectations are high. The curriculum is ambitious, broad and sequenced carefully. Staff engender positive relationships and look to make lessons challenging. Pupils respond positively. Most enjoy school. They take pride in their work and achievements. Many realise their potential. Overall, pupils achieve well, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those who are disadvantaged.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils behave well. Staff aim high for pupils academically and holistically. Bullying is not tolerated. The school has introduced some sensible changes to how the behaviour policy works. Some pupils find the higher expectations on them hard. Occasionally, the application of the policy is varied, which means pupils’ confidence in it is mixed. Nevertheless, lessons are typically focused and purposeful. Pupils move around the school calmly and respectfully. Pupils make a positive contribution to the friendly atmosphere.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils benefit from an extremely broad and varied offer. They embrace opportunities to enrich their understanding of the world through a wide array of extra-curricular opportunities and in ways that contribute to the life of the school and wider community. They are exceptionally well prepared for life in modern Britain.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Cleeve School strives, through authentic, distributed leadership, to help pupils achieve their potential. Staff work together relentlessly to find ways to continually improve provision further. Significant investment is made in the development of staff, including those who are in the early stages of their careers. Trustees share leaders’ ambition. They know the school well. They have put in place useful processes to hold leaders to account and check what leaders tell them. For example, they challenge leaders to ensure that the English Baccalaureate is at the centre of the school’s curriculum. Leaders act swiftly and appropriately to tackle areas that could be better. For example, pupils’ attendance overall is strong and improving, while suspensions are reducing. Pupils behave well in lessons and around the school.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

The school has strengthened its work to identify how to support pupils with SEND. There are now much sharper processes for identifying pupils’ needs and sharing this information with staff. For many pupils with SEND, these improvements are effective. However, inconsistencies remain in the application of these improved processes in class. This means that for some pupils with SEND, their needs are not met as well as they could be and they do not achieve as well as they should.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

The effectiveness of the school’s actions to improve can be seen in the carefully constructed, ambitious and well-designed curriculum. Most pupils learn this curriculum well. This is reflected in the strong outcomes achieved at the end of key stage 4 and in the sixth form. Pupils are typically very well prepared for the next stage of their education, employment or training. 14 and 15 January 2025

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Typically, the curriculum is taught effectively. Systematic approaches to teaching, known as ‘STRIVE’, help pupils know what to expect, and they learn the intended curriculum effectively. Staff use assessment diligently to check what pupils are learning in lessons and over time. This helps to ensure that gaps in learning are identified and that the curriculum can be continually adapted and improved to promote learning better. However, the school’s approaches to teaching, including meeting the needs of pupils with SEND and managing behaviour, are not applied consistently. Whereas this does not affect most pupils’ learning, it can mean that some do not learn or retain new knowledge as well as their peers.

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Pupils’ reading is prioritised. Pupils benefit from a range of strategies to help them to read better. This includes exposure to the ‘Cleeve Canon’, delivered through the tutor reading programme. Furthermore, pupils who struggle to read benefit from a focused reading programme. This helps them read with greater independence and fluency.

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Provision in the sixth form is excellent. The design and implementation of the curriculum is exceptionally strong and consistent here. Students, including those who are disadvantaged and those with SEND, achieve exceptionally well. They rightly say that they learn the qualifications, which are broad and tailored to meet local demand, in detail and that they are supported very effectively into ambitious next steps.

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Pupils’ personal development is promoted and provided for exceptionally well. Pupils have plentiful opportunities to understand social, moral and cultural issues. Extra-curricular activities enrich pupils’ experiences considerably. Careers advice is woven carefully into the curriculum from Year 7. The school ensures that pupils benefit from advice that is sequenced logically, including for those who continue into the sixth form. Pupils work together and develop leadership skills through wide-ranging opportunities, and through work experience. Consequently, pupils learn to be self-aware, are prepared well for the future and know how to keep themselves safe.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 There are inconsistencies in the implementation of the school’s policies for teaching the curriculum and meeting the needs of pupils with SEND. This means that, while most pupils learn the curriculum well and show positive attitudes to learning, including many with SEND, a small minority do not do as well as they could. The school should ensure that staff apply the school’s policies for teaching the curriculum and meeting the needs of pupils with SEND consistently, so that even more pupils reach their potential. 14 and 15 January 2025

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How can I feed back my views?

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). 14 and 15 January 2025

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provision

Number of pupils on the school roll 1,851

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form

Dates of previous inspection 9 and 10 October 2019, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 Cleeve School is part of the single academy trust of the same name. There are no other schools in the trust.  The school uses three registered and four unregistered alternative provisions.  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. During a graded inspection, we grade the school for each of our key judgements (quality of education; behaviour and attitudes; personal development; and leadership and 14 and 15 January 2025

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management) and for any relevant provision judgement (early years and/or sixth form provision). Schools receiving a graded inspection from September 2024 will not be given an overall effectiveness grade.

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 Inspections are a point-in-time evaluation about the quality of a school’s education provision.  This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  The inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: English, mathematics, history, computing and Spanish. 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 also listened to some pupils read.  Inspectors met with leaders, including the executive headteacher, the heads of school, those who lead teacher development and the special educational needs coordinator.  The inspectors spoke to four representatives from the board of trustees, including the

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chair and co-vice chairs. They also spoke with the academy’s school improvement partner.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors: 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 took account of the answers to the online survey, Ofsted Parent View, including the free-text responses. They also considered the responses to Ofsted’s staff and pupil surveys.  The inspectors reviewed a range of documentation, including documents relating to governance, leaders’ evaluations, the long-term strategy of the school and information about the school’s curriculum.

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Inspection team

Matthew Barnes, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Leanne Mills Ofsted Inspector 14 and 15 January 2025

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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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