Leaders have maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You are determined and passionate about improving standards in your school and make teaching and learning the priority in all you do. You are driven by a moral purpose to ensure that all pupils succeed and make sure staff are held to account while including them in the planning and monitoring of the school. You are highly visible in the daily life of the school, training colleagues, working with parents and leading on the provision of intervention sessions for pupils. You know pupils well and make it your business to understand the barriers to learning that pupils face and help them overcome these. You are managing a difficult financial situation skilfully and meeting the challenges of recruiting high-quality staff. Pupils, staff and governors clearly appreciate your thoughtful and optimistic leadership. Parents are very positive about the school. Leaders and teachers successfully model the school values of ‘Mutual Respect, Equality, Friendship, Teamwork, Independence and Perseverance’. You are building an effective leadership team, ensuring that they have high expectations and model them in the classroom and in their work with staff. You are their role model. You are taking difficult decisions about staffing, because you know that nothing should stand in the way of pupils’ achievement. As a result, teaching is having a good impact across the school, enabling pupils to be curious and interested in their learning. You have established good partnerships with the local primary and junior schools to improve the transition for pupils. As a result, staff know the children well. There are strong links with the schools in the local area and leaders make use of these to moderate and standardise teachers’ assessment. As a result, teachers predict pupils’ outcomes accurately and the targets set can be trusted by pupils, parents and governors. The 16 to 19 study programme is rich and varied. Despite strong competition from other schools the majority of students on level 3 pathways choose to remain in the sixth form. Leaders are driven by the need to offer the best possible courses for students. As a result, there are high levels of retention and almost all students go on to higher education or training. You are aware that there is more to do to improve outcomes for students on applied vocational courses. Staff are positive about the school and enjoy working there because they are well supported and challenged. Pupils are polite, courteous and support the school’s aims to provide the best-quality education for all. There are clear rewards and consequences for any behaviour that does not meet your high standards. Leaders have addressed the areas for improvement identified at the last inspection effectively. You have developed a new assessment system that is increasingly well used by the vast majority of staff. As a result, teachers plan more effectively to meet pupils’ needs. Middle leaders are also now using achievement information much more confidently than in the past to evaluate the quality of teaching and achievement in their areas. As a result, the majority of pupils who left in 2016 made good progress from their starting points across a wide range of measures. Middle-ability disadvantaged have made slower progress than other pupils nationally. Leaders are rigorously tackling this and as a result differences are diminishing for those pupils currently in the school. Disadvantaged pupils attend less regularly than other pupils. While there has been some improvement as a result of leaders’ work with pupils and their families, increasing these pupils’ rates of attendance is a priority for the school. Safeguarding is effective. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are detailed and of high quality. There are suitable systems in place to check on the recruitment of staff. Those staff with additional responsibility are well trained and provide useful and regular information to the rest of the staff. These frequent updates ensure that all staff are knowledgeable about how to keep children safe. Governors regularly scrutinise school procedures and check that leaders are taking the appropriate actions to support vulnerable pupils. As a result, these pupils are doing increasingly well and are effectively supported. Leaders also work well with other agencies and pursue the best outcomes for pupils. Consequently, parents and pupils are positive about the care and support that they receive, especially those who need additional help. Inspection findings Leaders know the strengths and weaknesses of the school well. They carefully and thoroughly evaluate what works and have robust plans in place to address areas that require further attention. Leaders regularly and accurately track the achievement of pupils and are now making better use of this information to set targets for pupils that challenge and stretch their learning. Staff were able to describe the main areas for improvement and the actions taken to address them in their subjects. Leaders have established clear expectations for teachers in planning and assessing learning. They regularly check that all staff are meeting these expectations and provide support when necessary. Subject leaders are now more confident in refining the school system to fit the demands of their subject. For example, teachers in English and mathematics have skillfully used the school’s assessment information so that they can be more explicit about challenging the learning of disadvantaged pupils, including in the sixth form. Governors are a strength of the school because they regularly reflect on how they could improve their own and the school’s performance. They have designed the structure of the governing body to refocus and sharpen their scrutiny of leaders’ work. They have a good overview of the effectiveness of additional funding and other critical areas because they assign key people with expertise to oversee these. The proportion of pupils achieving the expected standards in English and mathematics was above the national average in 2016. Pupils make especially good progress in mathematics because the subject leader has developed a supportive and highly effective team. Pupils currently in the school continue to do well. Pupils’ progress is increasingly strong in English. In 2016, pupils’ overall progress was broadly in line with the national average. Leaders have successfully introduced a new curriculum that stretches the pupils supported by the pupil premium. Evidence from books and from lessons shows that this is increasingly the case. Pupils’ spoken literacy is a strength. Many pupils display an enthusiasm for acquiring and developing their vocabulary and enjoy using new specialist terms, for example in science. Pupils are encouraged to read widely and often, and are taught reading skills effectively so that they achieve well. In 2015, disadvantaged pupils’ attainment improved and this remained the case in 2016. However, the middle-ability disadvantaged pupils made less progress than other pupils nationally in 2016. Current information shows that this is still the case in key stage 4, although the differences are diminishing because leaders are addressing this. Equally, leaders have taken effective action to resolve previous low performance in key stage 3, with disadvantaged pupils now doing as well as others in a wide range of subjects and in some instances achieving better. Disadvantaged pupils are more likely to be absent than other pupils. Leaders and governors have taken action to address this through a rigorous review of systems and structures. However, this group of pupils’ attendance is increasing, and remains a priority for leaders. Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are making progress in line with the national average. There are good systems in place to support them, such as individual student tool kits, and staff are well trained, so they have a good understanding of the needs of individual children. Teachers adapt the curriculum skilfully and deploy resources creatively to suit the needs of their pupils. For example, in a media studies lesson, the teacher had ensured that pupils with literacy difficulties had easy access to computers with which to draft their work and thus gain in confidence with basic skills in punctuation, spelling and grammar. Pupils are friendly, confident, polite and respectful of each other. They behave very well. They are knowledgeable about the risks of social media and confident about who to talk to if they have any concerns. They are proud of their school and the difference they make to school life.