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WHAT THE SCHOOL DOES WELL Standards in tests and examinations are above national averages; students of all abilities achieve well 1. Students’ attainment when they arrive at Theale Green from their primary schools is average. Their results in tests and examinations at 14, 16 and 18 have been consistently above national averages since the time of the last inspection (except at A-level in 2000, when they were average), and at least in line with the averages of similar schools, and often above them. Most of the work seen during the inspection was above average in standard. The good level of progress is the result of good teaching (paras.12-17) and students’ good learning and attitudes to work (paras.12, 17, 7-10). Students make steady progress in Key Stage 3, and more rapid progress in Key Stage 4 and the sixth form because students are taught how to learn in Key Stage 3, so that teaching and learning in Key Stage 4 and the sixth form can proceed at a brisk pace. 2. In the national tests at age 14, results for all subjects taken together have been above the national average, and in some years well above it, continuously since the last inspection, and in line with or better than the results of similar schools. The gap between boys’ and girls’ results is generally less than the national gap. While taking pleasure in these results, the school should use its improving data systems to keep two aspects of students’ performance at 14 under scrutiny: 3. Standards are high at GCSE, with results for both boys and girls well above the national average for several years and a rate of improvement faster than the national rate. Very few students, well below the national average proportion, leave Year 11 without qualifications. GCSE results are very good in art, drama, English, geography, history, mathematics and design and technology (D&T), and at least satisfactory in all subjects. Although the proportion of students achieving five or more higher-grade (A* - C) results fell below that of similar schools in 2000, this has not normally been the case and the provisional 2001 results exceeded the school target and restore the school to its previous position. GCSE results exceeded all targets set (for points per student, for five or more higher grades, and for five or more, and one or more, graded results) in 1999, 2000 and 2001, except for the proportion of students achieving five or more higher grades in 2000. Boys’ results improved slightly but girls’ slipped in 2000. 4. Results in the sixth form, in both AS/A-level and vocational courses, have been well above the national average for several years, in terms of both the pass rate and the quality of grades achieved. A-level results dipped to the national average in 2000 as a slightly weaker cohort passed through, but the 2001 results restore the quality of earlier years. This dip, and that in the upper grades of GCSE in the same year, is still undergoing investigation by the school. Results in the first year of the new AS-level examination were very good. Very good pass rates are achieved in all GNVQ subjects, with a high proportion of merits and distinctions. More detail on sixth form results may be found in the full report of the sixth form, paras. 58-65. 5. Results over time in art, drama/theatre studies, geography and English literature are very good at both GCSE and A-level. 6. Students of all abilities achieve well. Those with special educational needs (SEN) make good progress and achieve success at GCSE: almost every student achieves at least one graded result. Some outstanding GCSE and A-level results are achieved by very able students. In the sixth form, all students following vocational courses have passed in each of the last five years, with a higher-than-national-average proportion of merits and distinctions. Gifted and talented students achieve excellence - in academic results, regional and national sporting honours, artistic performances, design awards or in competitions in fields such as public speaking and business enterprise. Students from Theale Green reached national finals in the Young Enterprise, Mock Court Trials and Food and Farming competitions. In 2000, teams from Theale achieved local or national honours in rugby, netball, cross-country, basketball, football and trampolining. Students’ achievements and progress testify to the school’s commitment to inclusion - to value each individual and to help every one to achieve his or her potential. Students are confident, courteous and hard-working, and have excellent attitudes to their work and to the school 7. Students are proud to attend Theale Green School. Their confidence, good manners and very good behaviour, and their positive attitudes to work and to the school, are the result of: 8. Students show their skills and their positive attitudes to work in the good learning that characterises most lessons. Learning was always at least satisfactory, and in three-quarters of lessons seen it was excellent, very good or good. Students settle to work quickly and persist when they find tasks difficult. They willingly volunteer answers and ask for clarification when uncertain, and many are willing to debate with and challenge the teacher and each other. 9. Students’ behaviour was least good in over eighty per cent, and very good or excellent in nearly half, of the lessons seen. Students’ attitudes to school also shine through in their helpfulness and courtesy to visitors and in how they talk about the school: they recognise and support its strengths and ethos, and can describe both accurately. There is no doubt that students’ positive attitudes raise their attainment and speed their progress, shown in the accelerating progress described in para.1. 10. Parents, at their pre-inspection meeting and in their questionnaire and written comments, expressed great satisfaction with the way the school helps their sons and daughters become mature and responsible, and with how well it builds their confidence. 11. Attendance levels have slipped slightly in recent years, which is surprising given the excellent attitudes described above; current attendance figures are, however, still above the national average with very low levels of unauthorised absence; attendance therefore does not give cause for concern. Teaching is consistently good, and very good in the sixth form; it promotes good learning and progress 12. Teaching is good in Key Stages 3 and 4 and very good in the sixth form; it is significantly better than at the time of the last inspection. A third of the teaching observed was very good or excellent, and three-quarters was at least good. No unsatisfactory teaching was seen. Examples of good teaching were observed in almost every subject. Teaching is slightly better in Key Stage 4 than 3, and better again in the sixth form, where eighty per cent of teaching is good or better. (More detail on teaching in the sixth form may be found in the full report of the sixth form, paras. 72-81) Students in Year 7 show some unsettled behaviour; this is managed well and, as a result, students are ready to learn and teaching thereafter can proceed at a brisk pace, with high expectations. As a result, learning and progress accelerate up the school (para.1). 13. Teaching has several significant strengths. Teachers’ knowledge is very good in all subjects and across the age range. For example, the teacher’s detailed knowledge of the text enabled students in Key Stage 4 to gain a full understanding of the character of Falstaff and the motives for his actions. Many teachers teach with passion, to which students invariably respond well. Students in a Key Stage 3 history class were delighted to have been able to predict the political map of Europe in 1900 accurately; they were able to do so because the teacher’s knowledge and enthusiasm meant that he had devised an imaginative methodology for the lesson which motivated them and helped them achieve. 14. Teachers also know the requirements of the examinations well, and use their knowledge to focus students’ attention on key learning points, especially in Key Stage 4 and the sixth form. Teachers’ knowledge of assessment criteria in GNVQ helps raise standards of achievement in the health and social care and leisure and tourism courses in the sixth form. 15. Planning is very good at all key stages, including in the sixth form. In a sixth-form English lesson, cleverly-differentiated tasks required different groups of students to explore the issues regarding the structure and staging of ‘Othello’, whilst other students investigated the themes and characters. Very good planning enabled a Key Stage 4 music class to produce improvised pieces using a limited range of chords. The structure of a Key Stage 3 English lesson enabled students to discover for themselves the rules for making words plural, and thus master the ideas thoroughly. The careful planning of a well-briefed, motivating assignment helped the Year 12 leisure and tourism group to surprise themselves with the quality of the presentations they put together. 16. The management of students is also very good, particularly in Key Stage 3 where some younger students need to learn rules, routines and how to be attentive in lessons. Students of all abilities are taught well, further evidence of the school’s success in being inclusive. Work is well matched to the abilities of students with SEN, and learning support assistants work with great sensitivity to ensure that they take full part and achieve their best, as a result of which they make good progress. The challenge for very-able students is high and they achieve outstanding results. Parents think that teaching is good, and almost all believe that the school expects their sons and daughters to do their best. 17. As a result of the good teaching and the good quality curriculum, students learn well in Key Stages 3 and 4, and very well in the sixth form. Throughout the school they strive to produce work of quality. Their attitudes to work are very good and they concentrate very well to complete the tasks they are given. For the reasons given above, learning improves higher up the school, and the rate of progress students make improves with it. Students in the sixth form generally have good awareness of the strengths and weaknesses in their work. The school provides a very broad curriculum, including an excellent range of additional and extra-curricular activities, many run in conjunction with the community. 18. The quality of opportunities and experiences available to students is excellent. The curriculum meets statutory requirements at all stages, the shortcomings pointed out by the 1996 inspection having been overcome. The school is rightly proud of the broad curriculum it provides, with good access and opportunity for all. Students take a wide range of GCSE subjects and choose from an excellent range of AS/A-level subjects in the sixth form, but the range of intermediate courses available to students of more modest ability entering the sixth form is narrow. Predicting the demand for such courses has been difficult, with the result that apparently unpopular courses were cancelled in the summer of 2001, only for the school to find that a number of students who left school for college or employment returned to create a demand which at that late stage could not be fulfilled. (More detail on the sixth form curriculum may be found in the full report of the sixth form, paras.82-88) 19. The curriculum is interesting and varied and includes work experience, visits to theatres, field studies, an annual arts week and foreign visits. Very good provision is made for students’ personal, especially their social and moral, development. Extra-curricular provision is extensive and varied, and is popular with students. Twilight courses add further breadth to the curriculum, enable students to follow particular interests or further examination courses such the history of art at A-level or separate sciences at GCSE level, thereby increasing the average points they achieve. This excellent and imaginative development allows the school to maintain a very broad core curriculum and at the same time be inclusive by meeting individual needs, especially those of very able or gifted students. 20. The school has made good improvements to its provision for students with SEN. Since the last inspection, when SEN was a key issue, there have been several significant developments: strengths, such as provision for those with behaviour problems, have been improved still further (see paras. 35-37); learning support assistants are more effectively deployed; annual review procedures, individual education plans (IEPs) and the use of assessment to target intervention have all improved, and in-service training for all staff has increased. 21. Close collaboration with the community has increased the range of provision during term time, at the weekend and during holidays. The school is buzzing with activity during evenings and holidays with summer schools, youth clubs and adult classes in academic and leisure pursuits, most of which are open to school students. Parents believe that the school provides an interesting range of activities, both within the working day and beyond it. Provision for the arts is excellent 22. When last inspected in 1996, arts provision was good; not only has each separate discipline improved since then, but the advent of the arts college means that the school has developed a powerful vision for the place of the arts at the centre of the education of young people. It has used the additional funding provided by arts college status in ways that benefit and stimulate students across the school. There is an outstanding range of arts activities and events, both within the school and jointly with the community. Arts week is a very impressive focus for art, music, drama and dance for all students in Key Stage 3; the range of production and performance is outstanding, much of it within the community and with the support of community arts groups. 23. Large numbers of students are involved in exhibitions of work and performances, around the school and beyond it. The school provides training in the arts for teachers in other schools and works with gifted students, notably through innovative masterclasses. 24. An impressive record of progress and development has led to the school winning extended government funding for its arts college developments. The school is now working to develop its ideas on creative thinking, from a base within the arts, to enrich teaching and learning across the school. Community activities and links are very extensive and promote achievement 25. The school works with its community in a great variety of ways to fulfil the potential in its title of "community school". The governing body has a community committee to take a strategic overview of community initiatives and to prompt their improvement. The school site is the base for a great range of out-of-hours activity, described in para. 18-19, very well led by a community tutor who is a member of staff of the school and therefore well placed to ensure that activities are co-ordinated. Students work with less-advantaged groups in the community, undertake work experience with local firms and take their work, such as arts week performances, out into local halls and primary schools. Local charities are supported through a committee led by students. Community groups such as dance companies and music workshops come into school on a regular basis to work with students, enhancing their curriculum. 26. The school sees itself as part of an educational community, forging close links with its partner primary schools and with the local education authority (LEA). Links with primary schools are very good, helping students make the transition to secondary school smoothly: both parents and the primary schools praised the induction process, especially the part played in it by the house heads. Primary schools also make use of the facilities and expertise of their secondary school partner. The LEA uses expert teachers from Theale to support other schools. 27. Senior managers are committed to building the community within the school: students participate in a number of decision-making groups that enable them to influence school life, increase their commitment to the school and enhance their understanding of democracy. These groups not only include a student council, but also a newly-established sixth form academic committee, the purposes of which include engaging students more closely with issues of teaching and learning. 28. Community activity, therefore, helps raise standards as well as making the school a focus of community life and development. A good example is the plan for a community library on site: this will provide an excellent facility for both school and community, will enhance study facilities for the sixth form, and will bring members of the community into the school and into contact with the range of other opportunities available. Provision for students’ personal, especially their moral and social, development is very good 29. The school places great emphasis on valuing and caring for individual students, and on helping them develop into rounded, balanced young adults. Support for their social and moral development is therefore excellent. As examples of the strategies used, the school encourages and enables students to: 30. Teaching and relationships within the school actively encourage students to develop their own sets of values. Frank but sensitive discussion of recent horrifying events in New York, in lessons and assemblies, enabled students to express and develop their own views through challenging those of others. 31. The strength in provision for students’ personal development reported in the inspection of 1996 has been maintained, and aspects of social development have improved still further. The success of the provision is shown in the attitudes described in paras. 7-11. The care and support provided for students are of a very high standard 32. The network of care and support provided by the school has many excellent features, notably its provision for the health and safety of the school community and its pastoral care systems; these explain the absence of oppressive behaviour and the ethos of consideration for others. The school includes all students whatever their background, outlook or ability, and is not afraid to use innovative approaches such as the pioneering student support unit and the "counselling" services run by the sixth form, to do so. The strikingly low level of exclusions and the opportunities provided for students with problems to secure the help they need - with their learning, with their own behaviour or that of others, or with personal problems - are evidence of how inclusive the school is. Many services to support students are run by students themselves, such as "listening post" and "guardian angel" services, both of which are about helping other students with problems, and drug awareness sessions. All these methods are used very effectively to provide a positive and flexible response to students’ needs and requests. 33. The recently-introduced academic tutoring programme, when fully implemented for all students, will help set more authoritative individual targets than presently exist, and will form a very sound basis for students to achieve even higher standards. 34. Parents value very highly the care and support their sons and daughters receive at the school. A consistent theme of the parents’ meeting and of letters from parents to the registered inspector was the high quality of support given to their sons and daughters, when they have problems as well as routinely through teachers’ marking of their work and the setting of expectations. Although invariably described as sensitive, not all of the support is comfortable - parents also valued the appropriately sharp warnings and suggestions for a programme of recovery which are sometimes given. The management of students’ behaviour, including provision for those with emotional and behavioural difficulties, is excellent 35. The management of students’ behaviour is excellent. The school’s support unit fully deserves its extremely high reputation. The unit received a very good report in the last inspection and has continued to improve since then. It has altered its working practices and is now able to cater for a greater number of students. It intervenes at an earlier stage and offers a wide range of individualised provision to help students to develop strategies to manage their own behaviour. There have been no permanent exclusions for five years and a significant number of students who have received support from the unit have stayed on into the sixth form - further evidence of the success of the school’s inclusion policies. 36. In addition, teachers are very good at managing the behaviour of students in lessons. This is necessary in Key Stage 3 where many of the younger students need to learn rules, routines and how to be attentive in lessons. The improved attitudes evident by the end of Key Stage 3 and in Key Stage 4 and the sixth form illustrate how successful the teachers are and benefit the learning and progress of all students. 37. Parents respect the school’s approach to managing behaviour - its honesty in accepting that a small amount of bullying takes place, its forthrightness in dealing with it, and the way in which students are helped to understand the impact of their behaviour on others. An unusually high proportion of parents, in their responses to the questionnaire, believes behaviour in the school to be good. The leadership provided by the headteacher, senior staff and governors is of the highest quality, combining clear vision and values with excellent staff support and professional development 38. From clarity of vision to orderly day-to-day running, leadership and management are excellent and directly benefit the standards and progress achieved by students. The headteacher has given distinguished leadership over a long period and has succeeded in building a clear, consistent vision for a community school, and a set of values that pervade it. These have produced a vibrant learning community characterised by high standards of work, excellent attitudes, courtesy, and a strong sense of enjoyment in living and working together. This is a school in which the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and one which pursues its vision and values across an unusually wide range of endeavour. There are areas for improvement in the focus on raising achievement through data analysis, but these are more than outweighed by the effects of leadership by senior managers, especially the headteacher, and governors on such aspects as: 39. The vision and values are clearly stated and are reflected consistently throughout all aspects of school life. Governors have also been influential in setting the values and support them fully. The principle of equal value, very strongly espoused by the school, is used to guide not only the management of behaviour and access to special needs support, but also spending decisions, such as the recognition that more in-class support from learning assistants was needed if students with learning difficulties were to achieve their potential. The principle of inclusion therefore lies at the heart of the school’s values and pervades every aspect of its life and work. 40. Great stress is placed on the recruitment and retention of staff and their continuous professional development (see paras. 51-52), as a result of which teaching is good and the support provided by administrative, technical and site staff is of the highest quality. The sense of community, both within the school and with the world beyond, is constantly nurtured by governors and senior managers. 41. Planning for improvement is carefully and expertly done. The development plan is a living document, used on a daily basis to guide actions and spending decisions; its central focus on teaching and learning ensures that all the school’s actions are geared to its core business. The governing body is closely involved in agreeing the priorities of the development plan, and ensures that its intended outcomes are clear and measurable; it then monitors these outcomes very effectively and ensures that the next plan is adjusted accordingly. Improvements to school evaluation systems (see paras. 53-57) will help make priorities still more precise. 42. Senior staff and governors are successful in developing staff and in building and maintaining their morale, by: 43. These strengths were recognised when the school received the Investors in People award and when the performance management system was accorded the highest grade. 44. Leadership and management were judged to be excellent in the 1996 inspection; the principles giving rise to that excellence have been maintained, and many matters of detail improved. Over ninety per cent of parents who responded to the questionnaire believe the school to be well led and managed - an unusually high proportion. Financial management is exceptional, deploying all available resources in accordance with the principles of best value to realise the school’s ambitions 45. The school takes a four- to five-year strategic view of its resources, and is thus able to manage major and long-term projects such as: The budget and its management are seen as ways of achieving the school’s ambitions, rather than as a brake on spending. 46. The potential cost-effectiveness of major spending decisions is evaluated against the key principles of equal value for all and the achievement of best value. These considerations have led to decisions to appoint additional learning support assistants and administrative staff, as well as the three long-term projects listed above. 47. The governing body is supportive, and is well informed through its finance committee. Governors are sufficiently confident in the skills of the headteacher and his senior staff to allow some judicious risk-taking, and sufficiently experienced in financial management to ensure that the school accounts for the effectiveness of its spending decisions. The school has an outstanding bursar with both vision and entrepreneurial flair, who is a member of the leadership group and at the heart of the budget decision-making processes. The budget is needs- rather than formula-driven, resulting in effective support for the well-reasoned priorities of the school improvement plan. The stability of those priorities over time also helps effective budgeting. 48. The sixth form operates within budget, neither subsidising the main school nor being subsidised by it, and is highly cost-effective. More detail on budgeting and value for money in the sixth form may be found in the full report of the sixth form, paras. 101-104. 49. The most recent auditors’ report reinforced this picture of excellent financial management; it raised a very few minor action points, all of which have been implemented. Financial management, planning and monitoring were seen as excellent in the 1996 inspection, and these considerable strengths have been at least maintained. 50. Since it manages resources in such an exemplary way, provides good and very good teaching and a very broad curriculum, with rich enhancement through links with the community, and achieves good standards, the school, including its sixth form, provides excellent value for money for its students and for the wider community it serves. Strategies to recruit and retain staff are imaginative and successful 51. The national problems of recruitment and retention are exacerbated in the Home Counties because of very high and rising house prices. Theale Green has implemented a number of imaginative strategies to minimise the impact of these problems in the school: 52. As a result of these methods and others, the school is fully staffed with specialist teachers who take great pride in their work and in their school.
WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED How the outcomes of evaluation and assessment are used to promote a further rise in standards 53. Senior staff receive a flow of feedback and of evaluative data from the test and examination performance of students, from the judgement of teachers, departments and tutors, from routine marking of students’ work, and from the observation of teaching by team leaders. These data are valuable, but they are unevenly developed across the school: some, such as judgements about the value added by the school, are at an early stage; others, especially student performance data, are much better used in some departments than others, and the various components are not yet joined up to form a secure system to set improvement targets for individual students and departments, and to ensure still further improvement in standards across the school. 54. There are three areas for improvement: 55. The need for improvement in the evaluation of data applies equally to the sixth form, and is examined in more detail in the full report of the sixth form, paras. 57, 90, 100. 56. Members of the leadership team are aware of these issues and a system is coming into place. To implement it effectively, managers at all levels will need a well-designed training programme to ensure that the system is effective in providing data useful for decision-making and for pinpointing areas for improvement.
57. WHAT SHOULD THE SCHOOL DO TO IMPROVE FURTHER? The school has already recognised these issues; all feature in the school development plan. Whole school 4. Increase the use of ICT in AS/A-level courses in order to enhance students’ learning.
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