The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Your leadership is successfully combining the school’s long-standing caring and compassionate ethos with a greater focus on ensuring that pupils achieve all that they are capable of. When you took up the headship in September 2015, you recognised that standards in the summer examinations were not good enough. You and your team have worked hard since then to improve them. Progress initially was slow. You had to address weaknesses in teaching and the curriculum. GCSE outcomes in 2017 remained below those of other schools, particularly in English and science. However, there are now clear signs that pupils currently in school are reaching higher standards. Governors and senior leaders are self-critical and have an accurate view of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. Plans to improve the school are well targeted and appropriate. You have made good use of support from the local authority and experienced headteachers in other schools to enhance your capacity. The last inspection report asked leaders to strengthen middle leadership. Improving the quality of leadership has been a central feature of your school improvement strategy. Middle and senior leaders now feel accountable for the quality of their work and the impact that it has on improving outcomes for pupils. Middle leaders meet with you or your senior colleagues very regularly to discuss pupils’ progress and the quality of teaching. There is an emphasis on checking the quality of teaching through visiting lessons and checking pupils’ books. Middle leaders then discuss the progress that pupils are making with their subject teams. They intervene effectively when progress is not good enough and they coach and support their colleagues in order to address any weaknesses. You are restructuring the middle leadership team and have appointed new middle leaders to the three core areas of English, mathematics and science. This has increased the momentum for improvement markedly. The core subject leaders are working together well. They understand what they need to do to raise standards and they have set about their task with real enthusiasm. As a result of this work, pupils are now making better progress than they have in previous years. You are aware, however, that there is more to do to ensure that all pupils achieve as well as they should. Safeguarding is effective. You have ensured that the school has a strong culture of safeguarding. Staff are well trained and understand what they must do if they become aware of any potential safeguarding concerns. There is an experienced team to oversee the school’s support for pupils who need help because they are vulnerable or at risk. This team ensures that staff are well briefed about any pupils who may need support when they join Year 7 from their primary schools. There are good relationships with local authority services to help protect those pupils who have challenges in their home lives. Teachers remind pupils regularly about potential risks to their safety, including online. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. The school’s record-keeping systems are good. All the appropriate checks are made before staff are appointed. Governors check these systems regularly to reassure themselves that they are compliant. Inspection findings This short inspection focused on leaders’ work to raise standards for all pupils, on the performance of disadvantaged pupils, on standards for the most able and on the quality of the curriculum. Senior and middle leaders are focusing on two aspects to raise the quality of teaching that pupils experience. First is a school-wide drive to ensure that pupils understand how to improve their work. Teachers are expected to provide feedback to pupils on their work. Pupils are then given time to read and respond to their teachers’ comments. Most pupils, but not all, do so. Where teachers and pupils work together in this way, the quality of pupils’ work improves over time. Sometimes, however, the feedback is ineffective because it is not sufficiently precise and so pupils do not understand how to improve their work. Teachers have been developing the effectiveness of their feedback this year and there has been a steady improvement in its quality. Leaders are aware, however, that there is more to do to ensure that all feedback is as good as the best. Secondly, leaders and teachers are raising their expectations of what pupils can achieve. In the past, too often teachers allowed pupils to settle for second best.