Brighton secondary school rated good by Ofsted

A Brighton secondary school has been rated good by inspectors from the official watchdog Ofsted.

They published their report on Varndean School, in Balfour Road, Brighton, last week, giving it the second highest rating out of four.

The team of five inspectors rated its overall effectiveness as good. They reached the same verdict about pupil achievement, the quality of teaching, the leadership and management and the behaviour and safety of pupils.

They said that Varndean was a good school because

• Students achieve well and the progress of different groups is improving rapidly.
• The headteacher has restructured the leadership team, raised expectations and implemented new policies and procedures. This is improving the quality of teaching and so raising students’ achievement.
• Teaching is good, with some that is outstanding. Teachers develop good working relationships in the classroom and have high expectations of their students.
• The leaders and the governors took immediate action to improve the dip in results in mathematics last year and as a result progress has improved.
• The governing body has a very good understanding of the school’s strengths and areas for development. The governors carefully check all aspects of the school’s work and provide effective support and challenge to the school.

The inspectors said that Varndean was not yet an outstanding school because

• The proportion of outstanding teaching is not high enough. In some lessons, not all students are set work at the right level of difficulty or are provided with enough opportunities to work independently.
• Best practice in teaching is not fully shared across the school and so the progress students make in different lessons is sometimes variable.
• Although attendance is improving it is still below average for some groups.
• A minority of students sometimes misbehave in lessons so affecting the learning of others.

The inspection took place on Thursday 11 July and Friday 12 July.

The inspectors observed 40 lessons, some of which were with senior leaders. As well as looking at students’ work, they also talked to them about their experience in the school and how well the school was doing.

Meetings were held with the head teacher, a number of senior and middle leaders as well as with students from each year group.

The inspectors also met school’s local authority adviser and the chairman and vice-chairman of the board of governors.

They looked at several documents including the school’s own internal assessments, the school development plans, behaviour records, safeguarding records, governing body documents and documents relating to the management of teachers’ performance.

And they took into account 107 responses to the online Parent View survey, two letters from parents and carers, one meeting with a parent or carer and 22 responses to the staff questionnaire.

The school has more than 1,300 children from 11 to 16 years old.

The inspectors said that to improve further the school should tackle the number of students who were persistently absent.

The school was advised to extend and strengthen links with the parents and carers of those children, applying rigorously sanctions and rewards to ensure that students in all year groups attended regularly.

It was also graded good when it was last inspected four years ago. To see the latest Ofsted report, click here.