The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You provide passionate and well-focused leadership and you place the importance of a wide curriculum at its core. You have ensured that pupils are able to study a wide variety of subjects when they join your school. This commitment is maintained when pupils make their GCSE option choices. Students who enter your sixth form are incredibly grateful for the choice of over 40 courses and the determination of leaders to ensure that they can study the range of courses that is most appropriate for them. Teachers share your ambition for pupils to excel across the curriculum. They agree that leaders have created a climate in which teachers are trusted to take risks and innovate in ways that are right for the pupils. Pupils’ highly positive behaviour and attitudes to learning reported at the previous inspection have been maintained. Pupils behave well in and out of lessons. They are proud of their school and they are grateful for the opportunities that are available to them throughout the curriculum and as a result of the wide range of extra-curricular activities that you offer. Pupils value the many positions of responsibility available to them, along with the high quality of pastoral care that they receive from your staff. Parents are positive and supportive of the school, with one commenting: ‘It’s a fabulous school with welcoming staff who are able to address any concerns. I would highly recommend this school.’ Leaders have a clear and accurate understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. As a consequence, the quality of teaching and leadership has improved since the previous inspection. Sixth-form students continue to make good progress, while key stage 4 pupils have made progress that was either above, or in line with, national average. You are disappointed with some aspects of the 2017 GCSE results but are confident that your curriculum changes will support pupils to make good progress across the English Baccalaureate subjects from 2018 onwards. Governors continue to provide you with support and offer robust accountability. They know the school well, are passionate about its role within the community and they are clear about what the school needs to do to improve further. Leaders and governors are in agreement that they need to focus on ensuring that the needs of the most able pupils are met more effectively, that disadvantaged pupils make more progress and that all leaders are consistent in their drive, ambition and actions. Safeguarding is effective. The leadership team has ensured that safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Leaders undertake all appropriate checks on staff and these records are scrutinised on a regular basis by the chair of the governing body. Pupils feel safe and enjoy school as a result of the high level of pastoral care that they receive. They participate in a wide variety of sessions which support them to be safe and stay safe, for example sex and relationships education and the safe use of the internet. Staff undertake regular safeguarding training and leaders provide training for parents about staying safe online. The needs of children in care are met and they make good progress as a result of the support provided by leaders and specialist staff. Governors play an important role in checking safeguarding practices as part of their regular visits to the school. Inspection findings I pursued a number of lines of enquiry to ascertain whether the school remained good. My first question related to the apparent dip in progress, suggested by your 2017 GCSE results, and how you are responding to this. You recognise that there are a range of complex factors that have contributed to your pupils’ overall progress score in 2017, not least the decision taken by leaders and governors to allow pupils to continue with GCSE subject choices that did not cover the full range of English Baccalaureate subjects. You were clear that asking pupils to change the courses that they had been promised was not in their best interests. Your new curriculum model still allows pupils to undertake a wide range of GCSE subjects, but it also allows them to study more elements of the English Baccalaureate. A combination of this redesigned curriculum, good-quality teaching and new, rigorous assessment practices are ensuring that pupils within the school are currently making good progress overall. You have recognised that your most able pupils and disadvantaged pupils could do even better. As a result, you are taking effective action to increase their rates of progress.