St Peter's RC High School

St Peter's RC High School

Address: Kirkmanshulme Lane, Greater Manchester, M12 4WB Unique reference number (URN): 131880

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Safeguarding standards met

The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, pupils are made safer and feel safe.

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How we evaluate safeguarding

When we inspect schools for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:

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How we evaluate safeguarding

Met: The school has an open and positive culture of safeguarding. All legal requirements are met. Not met: The school has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all legal requirements are met.

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Attendance and behaviour Exceptional

Pupils have very high attendance because this is a place they really want to be. They know that attending school will give them the knowledge and skills to thrive now and in later life. This is because of the highly attentive supportive culture that underpins the strong education and the rich range of highly aspirational wider development opportunities that they receive. Leaders meticulously track pupils' attendance. They act quickly if pupils' attendance falls. This helps pupils and their families to rapidly overcome barriers that may lead to absence or persistent absence. Across all groups, pupils' rates of attendance are consistently above those seen nationally and are rising.

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Attendance and behaviour Exceptional

Leaders have exceptionally high expectations for pupils' behaviour and conduct. This transforms pupils' outlook about what they must do to look after one other. Pupils are dedicated to the long-standing warm and supportive culture of behaviour that prevails across the school. Staff consistently show pupils how to cherish and nurture positive relationships. This impacts positively on pupils' readiness to manage their own behaviour and make the right choices. Pupils show self-discipline and dedication in their lessons. They show courtesy and respect to others around the school site. Incidents of poor behaviour, including bullying or other unpleasant behaviours, are extremely rare. This is because staff skilfully challenge, support and educate pupils to understand the impact of their behaviour and actions on others.

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Inclusion Exceptional

The school provides high-quality education for pupils with diverse starting points, needs and vulnerabilities. This includes many disadvantaged pupils and pupils in the specially resourced provision for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Leaders demonstrate a sustained commitment to inspiring a love of learning and high achievement for all pupils. They successfully achieve this through the well-established culture of joined-up thinking across different staff teams, including a highly effective, carefully considered pupil premium strategy. This ensures that pupils receive highly effective support to overcome barriers to their learning and/or wellbeing so that they can thrive and enjoy success that transforms their lives.

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Inclusion Exceptional

Leaders make use of sophisticated systems to rigorously identify the needs of all pupils, including pupils with SEND. They methodically consider how all pupils' circumstances contribute to barriers that affect their learning or development.

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Inclusion Exceptional

Leaders ensure that pupils, regardless of need, enjoy learning together. Staff benefit from expert training to equip them to support pupils' varying needs. Consequently, staff have a highly developed understanding of how to design and quickly adjust activities to help pupils overcome barriers. Staff ensure that no pupils are left behind by deftly focusing the support they provide.

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Inclusion Exceptional

Leaders use part-time timetables and alternative provision to very good effect when occasionally needed. They work skilfully to identify the right opportunities to help pupils to develop strategies to overcome any barriers they are experiencing. Pupils rapidly re-engage and benefit from the high-quality education and wider experiences that the school provides.

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Leadership and governance Exceptional

Leaders and staff have an expert understanding of the barriers that deprivation can create for pupils' safety, belonging and aspiration. Through the school's mission of 'mutual love and care', they work tirelessly with pupils to 'make the impossible, possible'. Their commitment to the school and its wider community has a profound impact on pupils' engagement with education, readiness to succeed and preparedness for later life.

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Leadership and governance Exceptional

Leaders have a deep understanding of the school's strengths and an unwavering ambition to help pupils achieve even more. Pupils' needs and interests are at the heart of leaders' and staff's ambitions, work and behaviours. Together, leaders and staff continually refine and enhance the school's sustained highly inclusive culture, where pupils attend, behave, develop and learn exceptionally well.

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Leadership and governance Exceptional

Members of the governing body demonstrate the school's mission throughout their work. They collaborate closely with leaders, staff, parents and carers and pupils to understand the transformational impact of the school's provision on pupils. With these insights, they provide highly focused support and challenge in their pursuit of further excellence.

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Leadership and governance Exceptional

Leaders and staff collectively demonstrate the positive power of understanding and looking after one another. Leaders support staff with pertinent and highly focused opportunities to develop their professional expertise. They facilitate staff's appetite for supplementary training to further enhance their work. Staff hugely appreciate how leaders support their development, workload and wellbeing.

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Leadership and governance Exceptional

The school extends its positive influence well beyond its own community. Leaders have a long-standing track record of developing resilient teachers with a strong understanding of local challenges. They make sustained and expertly informed contributions to national research on teacher recruitment and retention in areas of high deprivation.

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Personal development and wellbeing Exceptional

The school's expertly designed personal development programme is carefully tailored to pupils' contexts, starting points and aspirations. Pupils are extremely well prepared for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life in modern Britain. All pupils, including those who face additional barriers, value what they learn about how to stay safe. They develop a deep understanding of themselves and the world around them. They rapidly learn how to look after themselves and build positive relationships with others. Pupils develop the resilience and confidence needed to overcome their challenges.

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Personal development and wellbeing Exceptional

The school's personal development programme directly impacts pupils' daily behaviour and interactions. Pupils understand the importance of rules, listening to others and respecting different viewpoints. They demonstrate a deep appreciation of diversity and understand their responsibility to respect and protect those around them. Their strong sense of fairness helps create an inclusive culture in which everyone belongs and has an equal opportunity to succeed.

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Strong standard

Pupils participate enthusiastically in the carefully planned and extensive range of sporting, academic, creative, media, performance and spiritual opportunities. These ensure that pupils broaden their horizons and develop new talents and interests. Pupils understand how these experiences contribute to their mental, physical, social and spiritual development. Many pupils also embrace leadership opportunities and develop long-lasting skills such as organisation, communication and listening to or positively influencing others.

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Strong standard

Leaders work skilfully with partners and local employers to provide a wide range of experiences and visits that help pupils consider their future pathways. Across Years 7 to 11, pupils develop an increasingly strong understanding of what they should consider when making choices about qualifications, further education, employment or careers. Regardless of their starting points, pupils are confident to make ambitious decisions and successfully pursue their aspirations.

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Strong standard

Expert pastoral care underpins pupils' success. Trusted staff build strong relationships with pupils. They identify when pupils need additional support. They provide a secure 'safety net' that enables pupils to aspire highly without fear of failure. Their consistent attention to pupils' physical and mental wellbeing has a significant and lasting impact on pupils' development, choices and future life chances.

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Achievement Strong standard

Pupils usually join the school with starting points that are close to or often below those seen nationally. Published data in 2025 shows that pupils achieve well from these starting points. Typically, pupils attain above that seen nationally. Disadvantaged pupils consistently attain higher than that usually seen for this group. Despite their lower starting points, they consistently attain as well as other pupils in the school.

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Achievement Strong standard

Current pupils, including pupils who are disadvantaged and pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities, learn extremely well. They consistently acquire detailed knowledge and develop highly proficient use of skills across the subjects they study. Furthermore, pupils typically develop their use of vocabulary, reading and oracy well. While leaders are immensely proud of pupils' gains in knowledge and skills, they remain ambitious for, and focused on, supporting even more pupils to achieve exceptionally well.

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Achievement Strong standard

Pupils' learning, progress and achievement equip them extremely well to take positive, and often highly aspirational, next steps in education, employment or training.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

The school's overall curriculum supports a sustained culture of academic aspiration for all pupils. Leaders ensure that subject curriculums take account of pupils' different, and often lower, starting points. Subject curriculums set ambitious expectations about what pupils should learn. Leaders gain precise and accurate insights into the positive impact of teachers' practice on pupils' progress. Leaders and staff demonstrate a persistent ambition to further enhance pupils' experiences. They carefully bring together expert input across staff teams to shape ambitious expectations for teachers' practice.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

Teachers have consistently well-developed subject knowledge. They make highly effective use of clear explanations and modelling. Teachers design demanding activities that build well on pupils' prior learning. They use well-timed and well-focused assessment strategies. Consequently, they have an accurate understanding of what pupils know and understand. Teachers use this to skilfully adapt subsequent learning activities.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

Teachers provide proactive individual support. This ensures that pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities, or pupils with other barriers to learning, typically learn with confidence alongside their peers.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

Teachers consistently support and develop pupils' English and mathematics knowledge across different subjects. This helps pupils to address gaps in their knowledge and learn well across the curriculum. Even so, leaders are ambitious to build more on pupils' oracy skills to further enhance their ability to articulate their understanding in the subjects they study.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Pupils feel blessed to be a part of this school. They appreciate the committed efforts of staff to provide them with the education, opportunities and care that genuinely change their lives. Pupils feel motivated to get the most out of school each day. This is reflected in their very high attendance rates.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Teachers skilfully design lessons around pupils' needs. Pupils consistently engage positively with ambitious opportunities to connect new ideas to what they have learned previously. They highly value and enjoy learning. From mixed and often lower starting points, pupils progress with great confidence through the curriculum.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Pupils experience the school's mission of 'mutual love and care' on a daily basis. Staff have a deep understanding of pupils' backgrounds and circumstances. Pupils quickly learn to trust staff. They are confident to share their achievements, feelings or struggles. Pupils know they will get the support they need to overcome any challenges they face.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Pupils know they can rely on this school to be a haven of safety. They benefit from staff’s high expectations of how they should treat each other. Staff help pupils learn how to be kind, respectful and courteous. Pupils understand and live up to their responsibility to demonstrate these qualities in their daily interactions. Pupils' conduct in and around school is exemplary. Incidents of bullying or discrimination are extremely rare. Any unacceptable behaviour is dealt with promptly and effectively.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Pupils are skilfully nurtured to understand themselves and others. They demonstrate consistently mature attitudes to valuing difference. Pupils acquire a loyal sense of belonging to this diverse community. Many pupils develop the confidence and courage to contribute to schemes that promote safe choices for young people beyond the school community.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Pupils make the most of the school's extensive range of wider opportunities. Pupils shape this offer with their views and opinions. They develop a wide range of talents and social skills, while also promoting their own health and wellbeing. For example, many pupils appreciate the school's offer of elite national sporting competition alongside other inclusive opportunities for everyone to enjoy sport.

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Next steps

Leaders should continue to hone the responsive strategies that staff use to further enhance pupils' oracy skills so that pupils achieve exceptionally well in all of the subjects that they study.

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About this inspection

The co-chairs of the board of governors in this school are Cathy Fitzwilliam-Pipe and Julie Welsby.

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About this inspection

Inspectors carried out this full inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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About this inspection

Following our renewed inspection framework, all inspections are now led by His Majesty's Inspectors (HMIs) or by Ofsted Inspectors (OIs) who have previously served as HMIs.

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About this inspection

Inspectors spoke with the headteacher, other senior leaders and staff during the inspection. Inspectors also spoke with representatives of the governing body, the Diocese of Salford and the local authority.

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About this inspection

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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About this inspection

The inspectors confirmed the following information about the school:

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About this inspection

This school is registered as having a Roman Catholic religious character. It is in the Diocese of Salford. The school's last section 48 inspection was in December 2021.

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About this inspection

The school includes specially resourced provision for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities for 12 pupils with specific learning difficulties and pupils with autistic spectrum disorder and developmental language delay.

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About this inspection

The school makes use of one registered alternative provision.

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About this inspection

There have been no significant changes to the school since the previous inspection.

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Lead inspector:

Michael Pennington, His Majesty's Inspector

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Team inspectors:

Linda Griffiths, Ofsted Inspector David Roberts, Ofsted Inspector Tracey Greenough, Ofsted Inspector Sally Kenyon, Ofsted Inspector

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Facts and figures used on inspection

This was the data available at the time of the full inspection, taken from different sources . More recent data may have been published since the full inspection took place.

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Facts and figures used on inspection

The inspector(s) used this data during the full inspection on 7 July 2026

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What does this mean?

The total number of pupils currently at this school and how this compares to other schools of this phase in England.

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What does this mean?

The total number of pupils who can attend the school and how this compares to other schools of this phase in England. Headteacher: Stephen Gabriel National average: 1,154

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What does this mean?

The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals at any point in the last 6 years.

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What does this mean?

The proportion of pupils with an education, health and care plan. This covers pupils with more support than is available through special educational needs support.

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What does this mean?

The proportion of pupils with reported special educational needs support at the school.

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What does this mean?

Based on the English indices of deprivation (2019) and the school's location, we have calculated whether the school is located in a more or less deprived area.

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What does this mean?

Whether school has Resourced provision or SEND unit (if applicable).

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What does this mean?

The type of Special Educational Needs provision provided at the school (if applicable).

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English and maths GCSE

Percentage of pupils who achieved grade 5 or above in English and maths GCSE.

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national average

2024/25 (final) 45.6% 45.4% Close to average

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national average

2023/24 (final) 51.2% 45.9% Close to average

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national average

2022/23 (final) 47.2% 45.3% Close to average

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Attainment 8

A measure of pupils' point scores across 8 subjects including maths (double weighted), English (double weighted if both language and literature are taken), 3 EBacc measures and 3 GCSE or technical measures.

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national average

2024/25 (final) 47.4 46.1 Close to average

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national average

2022/23 (final) 49.1 46.3 Close to average

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Progress 8

How much progress pupils made between the end of primary school (key stage 2) and the end of secondary school (key stage 4), compared to pupils across England who got similar results at the end of key stage 2.

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national average

2022/23 (final) 0.12 -0.03 Close to average

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Disadvantaged pupils' performance

Disadvantaged pupils are those who have been eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years and children looked after.

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Disadvantaged pupils' English and maths GCSE grade 5 or above

Percentage of disadvantaged pupils achieving grade 5 or above in English and maths GCSE.

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Disadvantaged pupils' Attainment 8

A measure of disadvantaged pupils' point scores across 8 subjects including maths (double weighted), English (double weighted if both language and literature are taken), 3 EBacc measures and 3 GCSE or technical measures.

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Disadvantaged pupils' Progress 8

How much progress disadvantaged pupils made between the end of primary school (key stage 2) and the end of secondary school (key stage 4), compared to pupils across England who got similar results at the end of key stage 2.

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Disadvantaged pupils' performance gap

Disadvantaged pupils are those who have been eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years and children looked after. The school disadvantage gap is the difference between the performance of the school's disadvantaged pupils compared to the performance of all non-disadvantaged pupils nationally.

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Disadvantaged pupils' English and maths GCSE grade 5 or above

Percentage of disadvantaged pupils who achieved grade 5 or above in English and maths GCSE.

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Disadvantaged pupils' Attainment 8

A measure of disadvantaged pupils' point scores across 8 subjects including maths (double weighted), English (double weighted if both language and literature are taken), 3 EBacc measures and 3 GCSE or technical measures.

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Disadvantaged pupils' Progress 8

How much progress disadvantaged pupils made between the end of primary school (key stage 2) and the end of secondary school (key stage 4), compared to pupils across England who got similar results at the end of key stage 2.

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Destinations after 16

Percentage of pupils staying in education or employment for at least 2 terms after the end of secondary school (key stage 4).

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Overall absence

The percentage of all possible mornings and afternoons missed due to absence from school (for whatever reason, whether authorised or unauthorised) across all pupils.

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Persistent absence

The percentage of pupils missing 10% or more of their possible mornings and afternoons.

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Exceptional

Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other schools can learn from it.

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Strong standard

The school reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of them.

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Expected standard

The school is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional standards expected of them.

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Needs attention

The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements.

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Urgent improvement

The school needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of education and/or care.

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Urgent improvement

services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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