Reddish Vale High School

Reddish Vale High School Reddish Vale Road, Reddish, Stockport, Cheshire SK5 7HD

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At the most recent graded inspection, the following areas were identified as needing to improve:

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 Trustees and members of the local governing body have not held the school to account for the decline in the quality of education that pupils receive. They have acted too slowly to secure much needed improvements. Those responsible for governance must ensure that they take rapid action to improve the quality of education.  The school’s self-evaluation processes are not effective. This means that weaknesses are not identified or rectified. This has hampered the school from improving the quality of education that pupils receive. The school should ensure that its processes for evaluating its work are accurate and that it supports leaders to use these monitoring processes effectively.  Teachers, including those who teach outside of their subject specialisms, do not have the subject-specific expertise to deliver curriculum content. This means that pupils do not develop a secure body of knowledge that prepares them for their next steps in

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learning. The school should ensure that teachers are supported to develop their expertise in how to deliver the curriculum so that pupils learn all that they should.  Teachers do not use assessment strategies well enough to check pupils’ understanding of the curriculum. Consequently, pupils have gaps in their knowledge that are not addressed. The school should ensure that teachers identify and then remedy gaps in pupils’ knowledge so that their learning is secure.  The school does not identify the needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) accurately. Furthermore, the school has not ensured that teachers have the expertise that they need to adapt learning for pupils with SEND. Consequently, these pupils are not supported to learn well enough. The school must ensure that teachers are equipped with the knowledge and skills that they need to provide effective support so that pupils with SEND succeed.

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 Pupils who find reading difficult do not receive effective support to quickly address the gaps that they have in their reading knowledge. As a result, these pupils do not gain confidence or fluency when reading. This hinders how well they can access the Monitoring Inspection report: Reddish Vale High School, 24 and 25 March 2026 2 curriculum. The school should ensure that weaker readers receive appropriate support so that they are able to access the curriculum.  A number of pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND, do not attend school regularly enough. This means that they miss out on academic learning, and they do not benefit from the school’s provision for their personal development. The school should ensure that it analyses its attendance data more effectively so that it can provide suitable support to reduce absence levels.

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Leaders and trustees are taking effective action to improve the school but

continued work is needed to remove the special measures designation.

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Leaders and trustees are taking effective action to improve the school but

HMCI is of the opinion that the school may appoint early career teachers.

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Leaders and trustees are taking effective action to improve the school but

During the monitoring inspection, inspectors focused on the following evaluation areas:  Leadership and governance  Curriculum and teaching  Achievement  Attendance and behaviour  Inclusion

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Leadership and governance

Leaders, including trustees and members of the local governing body (LGB), have successfully built on the improvements reported at the previous monitoring inspection. Together, they have further strengthened leadership at all levels to support the school’s ongoing actions to address weaknesses.

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Leadership and governance

A culture of purposeful accountability between the trust, the LGB and school leaders has been further embedded. The LGB has expanded to further develop its breadth of expertise. Members of the LGB have matched their training to the school’s improvement priorities. They increasingly demonstrate the knowledge and expertise needed to fulfil their duties. As a result, their scrutiny, questioning, challenge and support are becoming increasingly effective. Members of the LGB are clear about their next steps to gain a deeper insight into the impact of the curriculum on pupils’ achievement.

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Leadership and governance

Leaders’ checks on the delivery of the curriculum mean they have a secure understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of pupils’ experiences in lessons. Increasingly, leaders are ensuring that these checks are more tightly focused on how well teachers help pupils to gain knowledge and skills. This is providing leaders with a clearer picture of the actions they should take to establish consistently effective teaching across the school. Consequently, leaders’ support for staff to develop their teaching practice is bearing fruit. Leaders have appropriate plans to further enhance these checks to provide more focused information for staff about the impact of their teaching on pupils’ learning.

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Safeguarding

At the previous graded inspection, safeguarding was evaluated as being effective. Monitoring Inspection report: Reddish Vale High School, 24 and 25 March 2026 3

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Curriculum and teaching

Leaders have further embedded their expectations for the experiences that pupils should have in lessons. Teachers, including those at beginning of their careers, have benefited from high-quality training to support the development of their practice. Leaders have ensured that these opportunities are carefully timed, tightly focused and logically ordered. Consequently, teachers feel well supported to develop their expertise and practice.

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Curriculum and teaching

Teachers have secure knowledge of the subjects that they teach. They typically select subject content that is suitably demanding for pupils. Teachers increasingly design appropriate activities that encourage pupils to think about previous learning before being introduced to new content. However, while these strategies are more commonplace than at the previous inspection, the impact on pupils’ learning is variable. Some teachers are still developing and refining this practice. This affects how well some pupils make links between prior and new knowledge.

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Curriculum and teaching

Teachers understand when to use assessment strategies in lessons. In some cases, this provides teachers with very clear information about what pupils know, understand and are ready to do next. Elsewhere, teachers’ use of assessment strategies is not as well focused. These techniques do not give them the information that they need to be sure that pupils are ready to move on in their learning. Furthermore, teachers sometimes respond to gaps in pupils’ knowledge by simply restating information without securing any further thinking from pupils.

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Curriculum and teaching

Teachers continue to develop their understanding of how to support pupils with SEND in lessons. They have appropriate knowledge of pupils’ needs and where pupils may need more help to overcome barriers. Teachers typically use this information to ensure all pupils participate and engage in lessons. Teachers usually make successful use of strategies to help pupils overcome physical barriers to learning. However, support to help pupils process their thinking and understanding remains uneven. This affects how well some pupils make secure long-term gains in knowledge and how confidently they apply it in their subjects.

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Achievement

The published data in 2025 does not reflect the considerable changes that leaders have made to pupils’ achievement. This is because there was not enough time for the Year 11 cohort to benefit from the improvements to teaching. As a result, their attainment was below the national average in many subjects.

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Achievement

Leaders’ and staff’s joint efforts to strengthen teaching are better reflected in the learning and achievement of pupils currently at the school. Even so, considerable variability remains across all groups of pupils. In some places, pupils make secure gains in knowledge, which they can apply increasingly well. Elsewhere, weaknesses in teaching impede the breadth or depth of knowledge that pupils gain and learn how to use.

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Achievement

Pupils’ knowledge of important subject-specific concepts, processes and methods is also mixed across and within subjects. For example, most pupils understand concepts and can use methods or processes when these are first introduced. In places, well-crafted activities Monitoring Inspection report: Reddish Vale High School, 24 and 25 March 2026 4 help some pupils to confidently recall these over time and further develop their use. However, this is not typically the case elsewhere.

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Achievement

Leaders have strengthened their work to identify important gaps in pupils’ English and mathematics knowledge. Systems to support pupils who are at the earliest stages of learning to read have been successfully extended to all year groups. Focused and prompt support is now ensuring that pupils typically gain the reading knowledge they need to access the curriculum. More recently, leaders have strengthened their approaches to identifying gaps in pupils’ mathematics knowledge that impede learning across other subjects. Support through small-group and one-to-one tuition is beginning to help some pupils close these gaps. Leaders have suitable plans to further develop this support to ensure that more pupils can confidently use and apply number skills across the curriculum.

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Attendance and behaviour

Leaders expect all pupils to attend school regularly. They promote positive attendance through suitable incentives. Pupils value the rewards they get for good attendance. Most pupils want to come to school.

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Attendance and behaviour

Leaders’ refreshed attendance strategy remains well focused on the pupils who need more support to attend each day. This ensures that leaders spot patterns in pupils’ absence rates quickly. Staff identify the factors that may be affecting the attendance of individual pupils. They provide an appropriate balance of support and challenge for pupils when needed. As a result, the proportion of pupils who are persistently absent is beginning to reduce and overall attendance rates are gradually improving. Leaders are clear in their ambition to further review and refine this work so that all pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND, attend school as often as they should.

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Attendance and behaviour

Leaders have carefully nurtured the positive culture of behaviour noted at the previous monitoring inspection. They have established a consistently conducive environment for learning. The school’s behaviour expectations and systems are now well embedded. Pupils’ understanding of these expectations is secure. This has led to further reductions in incidents of poor behaviour, including internal truancy. A typically positive culture of behaviour is now the norm.

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Inclusion

Leaders have further strengthened the school’s capacity to promote and support inclusion since the previous monitoring inspection. With this capacity, they have refined and honed existing approaches to assess and identify pupils’ needs. They ensure that this information is shared effectively with staff to inform how pupils are supported in lessons.

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Inclusion

Leaders are making greater and more frequent use of checks on how well staff support pupils in lessons, including pupils who are disadvantaged and those with SEND. These checks have helped staff to establish a consistent culture of pupil engagement and participation in learning. Furthermore, they are providing leaders with a more detailed picture of the current strengths and weaknesses in how staff support pupils in lessons. Monitoring Inspection report: Reddish Vale High School, 24 and 25 March 2026 5 Leaders use these crucial insights to make well-informed decisions about the content and timing of further training to support staff practice.

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Additional next steps

Leaders and trustees should continue to work to address the priorities for improvement identified in the last graded inspection report.

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About this inspection

The inspectors carried out this monitoring inspection under section 8(2) of the Education Act 2005, and it was the second monitoring inspection since the school was judged to require special measures following the graded inspection that took place in June 2024.

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About this inspection

The school’s previous inspection and the first monitoring inspection(s) were carried out under the Education Inspection Framework (EIF) at that time. The renewed EIF took effect from 10 November 2025. The areas for improvement identified at the school’s graded inspection and subsequent monitoring inspection have been cross-referenced to the relevant evaluation areas in the inspection toolkit for consideration on this monitoring inspection.

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About this inspection

The purpose of this monitoring inspection was not to determine grades for any of the evaluation areas set out in the school inspection toolkit. The purpose was to identify and report on the school’s progress in addressing priorities for improvement since the school’s previous inspection.

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About this inspection

Since the previous monitoring inspection, the LGB has appointed a further 2 members.

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About this inspection

During this inspection, meetings were held with the headteacher, other senior leaders and staff. Inspectors also met with the chief executive officer, the trust director of education, trustees and members of the school’s LGB to discuss the actions that have been taken to improve the school since the most recent graded inspection.

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Lead inspector

Michael Pennington His Majesty’s Inspector

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Team inspector

Stephen Ruddy Ofsted Inspector Monitoring Inspection report: Reddish Vale High School, 24 and 25 March 2026 6

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No Monitoring Inspection report: Reddish Vale High School, 24 and 25 March 2026 7 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 looked- after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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