The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Since starting as principal in July 2018, you have been determined to build on the school’s successes while maintaining a strong focus on the relative weaknesses. It is clear that continuing to raise the aspirations and expectations of pupils remains a key aspect of your work. In a short space of time, you have come to know the school well, including what the concerns are and what is working well and where. The curriculum is flexible enough to meet the needs and interests of the pupils. For example, links with other providers allow pupils to stay at the school while also pursuing their career interests, such as following courses in hair and beauty at the local college. You and the staff understand the needs and interests of pupils well. Pupils say that staff are supportive. You hold regular meetings to discuss the progress each pupil is making. From this meeting, parents are informed when things are not going according to plan, but also when pupils are doing well. Pupils are praised, publicly, for their hard work and effort. Any possible changes to a pupils’ curriculum are discussed with parents and the pupils themselves. This means that, as one pupil put it, they ‘feel included and wanted’. Pupils wear their uniform with pride. They are polite and welcoming to visitors. Trustees and members of the board have a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the school. They are strategic in their approach, challenging senior leaders and checking on the impact of planned improvements. Trustees and members have access to comprehensive training, which enables them to fulfil their roles effectively. They share your ambition to raise the aspirations and expectations of pupils. Safeguarding is effective. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. Policies and procedures are all in place and are used effectively to ensure that pupils are safe. Training is adapted to ensure that it covers the key issues which pupils face in their local community. Strong links with outside agencies mean that pupils whose circumstances may make them vulnerable are able to access the right support, at the right time. Pupils are safe and feel safe. Inspection findings At the last inspection, pupils’ progress in English and mathematics was an area for improvement. You have had much success in addressing this. Pupils now make better progress than their peers nationally in both subjects. Effective professional development has led to an improving quality of teaching. Of particular note is the development of mathematics teachers who do not have a degree in the subject. They are supported effectively and are given time to plan and develop their knowledge and understanding of mathematics. As a result, these teachers are able to support pupils to make better progress. The expectations of teachers in English and mathematics are high, as is the challenge provided in lessons. Pupils meet this level of challenge and rise to meet the high expectations of their teachers. However, in some subjects, the expectations of teachers are variable. A few teachers, particularly when teaching key stage 3, do not challenge pupils enough. Pupils’ progress is not as strong in these instances. In 2017/18, the proportion of pupils excluded for a fixed amount of time and the proportion excluded repeatedly were high. Board members challenged the school over these figures and a new behaviour policy was introduced in July 2018. Money was spent on improving the reintegration of pupils once they were excluded. This included counselling and mentoring to support pupils so they did not reoffend and continue to be excluded. As a result, the proportion of pupils being excluded has fallen significantly, as has the proportion being excluded repeatedly. Overall, the new behaviour policy has improved behaviour across the school. However, in some lessons, most notably in key stage 3, low-level disruptive behaviour, such as chatting, still hinders pupils’ learning. In 2018, disadvantaged pupils made less progress than other pupils in school, in subjects other than mathematics and English. You and your team are fully aware of this and have reviewed why this happened. Strategies are in place to improve the progress made by disadvantaged pupils across the curriculum. For example, effective practice is being shared: mathematics teachers are supporting science teachers with teaching the presentation of data to ensure consistency. Books reviewed during the inspection show that there is no difference in the quality of the work and the expectations of disadvantaged pupils. However, you have identified that those disadvantaged pupils who do not attend school regularly make less progress. Overall attendance is on a slight downward trend and the attendance of disadvantaged pupils is lower than that of other pupils in the school. Since the time of the last inspection, a higher than average number of pupils have left the school. You track carefully where these pupils go when they leave. Communication with parents is encouraged and effective. For instance, you send letters home and hold meetings with parents to discuss the options available to them and their children. Some pupils leave because their parents relocate. However, the majority of pupils who leave the school do so at the end of Year 9 in order to attend other educational establishments, such as the local university technical college. This is often because these pupils have chosen a future career path, such as engineering, that is best developed in more specialist provision. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: attendance rises, particularly for disadvantaged pupils low-level disruption is reduced and dealt with consistently, especially at key stage 3 teachers’ high expectations of pupils in English and mathematics are shared by all teachers, particularly at key stage 3. I am copying this letter to the chair of the board of trustees and the chief executive officer, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for North Lincolnshire. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Tanya Stuart Her Majesty’s Inspector Information about the inspection The inspection team observed lessons across the full age range of the school and across different subjects of the curriculum. Inspectors met with senior leaders, members of the board and trustees. Inspectors also met the chief executive officer of the trust. Inspectors spoke to pupils both informally at social times and formally during lessons and interviews. The quality of pupils’ work was reviewed in lessons. A range of documentation was considered relating to teaching, safeguarding, pupils’ performance and governance. The school’s website was also reviewed. Inspectors considered the 86 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View.