The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the previous inspection. You and your leaders have a clear vision for the school and are successfully driving the school forward. While your results in 2016 showed that, overall, pupils’ progress was broadly in line with national figures, there were marked improvements last year. In 2017, pupils made progress that was significantly above national figures overall, and specifically in the English and EBacc qualifications. You have restructured your leadership team and increased your focus on teaching, learning and assessment. Subject leaders are line managed more closely, and termly ‘raising standards’ meetings ensure that leaders at all levels now take greater responsibility for the progress that all groups of pupils make. While you and your senior leaders accurately identify some of the improvements made in your self-evaluation, some of your overall judgements on the school’s effectiveness are too generous. We were immediately struck by the many smiling faces of pupils, who enjoy coming to school. When speaking to them, pupils universally highlighted how their teachers ‘go above and beyond’ to help them achieve well. Pupils display a real pride in their school. They talk enthusiastically about their strong relationships with staff and the sense of community where ‘everyone goes out of their way to be friendly and make you feel welcome’. In lessons, the vast majority of pupils display good behaviour and positive attitudes. They are attentive, enthusiastic and keen to do well. We noted teachers using questioning skilfully to check pupils understand the work and to push them to think harder. Where teachers make full use of pupils’ previous achievements, activities are suitably challenging and pupils make at least good progress over time. This is not fully established across all subjects. We found that, at times, some lower-ability pupils are not always given the support they need to ensure that they are able to get on with their work promptly. In our discussions, governors portrayed a more accurate view of the school’s overall effectiveness. They are right when they say that this is a good school that is improving. They feel most proud of the culture in which staff are developed, and the outward-looking nature of the school promotes the sharing of best practice in its search for continual improvement. The close links with families and the wider community help pupils expand upon their Christian experience within school. They demonstrate fundamental British values, including tolerance and respect beyond the school gates. Governors acknowledge that the challenging comments in the previous inspection report linked to the progress of disadvantaged pupils stimulated a response. They rightly view that the actions taken to improve disadvantaged pupils’ progress are going in the right direction but are not the finished article yet. Safeguarding is effective. The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose. We picked up a few minor administrative issues, but these were easily rectified during the course of the inspection. Leaders are aware of their responsibilities to keep pupils safe, and these are well communicated to staff. Pupils say they feel safe and know how to keep themselves safe. They talk particularly about the significant impact of talks from past students highlighting some of the dangers to their safety. The overwhelming majority of parents agree that their children are safe, happy and well cared for, and that staff deal with bullying well on the rare occasions it does occur. Staff unequivocally say that pupils are safe. The six designated staff for child protection have an in-depth knowledge of vulnerable pupils and have robust arrangements in place to ensure that they are kept safe. Inspection findings To determine whether the school remained good, we followed specific lines of enquiry during the inspection. These were based on the issues raised in the last inspection, the school’s recent performance information and an analysis of the school’s website. First, we looked at how leaders and governors have improved teaching and learning for pupils. The improved outcomes achieved in 2017 result from the effective actions leaders have taken, including monitoring standards of teaching and learning more closely. You acknowledge that 18 months ago some pupils did not make enough progress. Through ‘raising standards’ meetings, increased learning walks, and tighter line management, overall standards are now higher. Observations of pupils’ work, and looking at the school’s most recent assessment information, confirm that this trend of improvement is likely to continue. You have also increased department development time, and introduced key focus areas that help teachers to improve their practice across all subject areas. Your four strands for improving teaching and learning are linked to teachers.