The school

The headteacher and all staff demonstrate a strong commitment to the young people of St Andrew’s RC High School. Senior managers have successfully established a positive culture amongst staff and young people which provides a solid foundation for increased success. Almost all staff are open to new ideas, keen to share their work with each other and welcome discussion about how to improve. Staff at all levels take responsibility for leading aspects of school life.

Young people are increasingly becoming involved in decisions about how to make the school better. This is evident in recent improvements to the organisation of the Pupil Council and the establishment of a daily focus group of young people meeting with the headteacher. Equally, the headteacher very much values the views of parents and partners in the wider community. He is looking to further increase this involvement in the near future. To build further on the school’s current strengths, senior managers should now seek to bring more consistency and coherence to the work of the school.

There is a need to move beyond the current broad and far reaching improvement planning to a more focused set of priorities which all staff, young people, parents and partners agree and work together to achieve. The headteacher and his senior team have taken the school forward significantly in recent years. With their continued leadership, commitment and professionalism we are confident the school has the capacity to go from strength to strength.

Key strengths of the school

• The caring and inclusive environment, reflecting the Catholic ethos of the school.
• Courteous and well-motivated young people.
• Staff commitment to improving learning experiences in and beyond the classroom.
• Effective partnership working to support learning and increase achievement.
• The headteacher and senior management team’s leadership of change.

The following areas for improvement have been agreed with the school and education authority:

• Further develop approaches to tracking and monitoring progress to ensure the needs of all
  learners are well met, including through their entitlement to personal support.
• Continue to build on current approaches to self-evaluation to ensure young people are
  consistently actively involved in improving their learning and achievement.
• Strengthen approaches to ensure all young people make appropriate progress in
  developing literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing across learning.