Spalding Grammar School continues to be ‘good’ says its latest Ofsted report.
The short inspection at the school was carried out on February 5 and the report published this week.
“The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection,” says the report.
“The progress made by pupils was exceptionally strong in mathematics, science and humanities subjects. The achievement of disadvantaged pupils and pupils with special educational need or disabilities was also above average, an improvement on previous years,” it adds.
The report acknowledges there have been “challenging” recruitment issues, and says that improvements in the subject areas of English and modern languages has dropped as a result.
“The behaviour and conduct of pupils is good overall. The majority of pupils are
polite, courteous and helpful. Relationships between staff and pupils are generally positive,” says the report.
Spalding Grammar School has 890 students and capacity for 1,070. It became an academy in February 2013. It received its last full Ofsted report in November 2015 when it was found to be good.
Attendance is above the national average and has been for the last three years although there are strategies in place to further improve attendance.
“Pupils told inspectors that they feel safe in school. They know who they can talk to if they have any worries or concerns. This includes access to the school’s “well-being” support officer when pupils require additional care and support.”
Speaking about the sixth-form provision, the inspector says: “Leaders are engaging with other post-16 providers in the region to further develop independent study skills and raise individual expectations.
“New approaches to making more effective use of students’ personal study time for example, have recently been implemented. It is too soon, however, to see the impact on students’ outcomes.”
The report also highlighted the good subject knowledge of teachers.
But the inspector also said the pace of learning was slower at times and students weren’t routinely challenged to make strong progress.
Pupils indicated they appreciated the range of extra-curricular opportunities.
The school has to ensure quality of teaching, learning and assessment constantly inspires and enthuses pupils about their learning so they can thrive as independent learners, the report adds.
