Al Risalah Secondary School

Overview

Al Risalah Secondary School is judged as ‘Good’ across all inspection categories, including overall effectiveness, the quality of education, and leadership. The report describes a nurturing environment where pupils feel a ‘real sense of belonging’ and forge ‘trusting relationships with staff’. Leaders and governors are deemed to have ‘suitable experience and expertise’ to ensure the school meets independent school standards consistently.

Strengths

• Pupils are ‘polite and respectful’, creating a ‘harmonious atmosphere’ with consistently high attendance rates.
• The school offers a ‘well-balanced and broad curriculum’ with ‘exceptionally high’ published GCSE outcomes.
• Staff possess ‘secure subject knowledge’ and use effective checks to inform future teaching, including ‘booster classes’ in mathematics.
• Pupils’ ‘personal development’ is strong, with opportunities to learn about different cultures and challenge inequalities.
• The Nursery provides a ‘strong start’ to education, with staff working closely with families to help children settle.

Areas to improve

• In a few foundation subjects, the curriculum is ‘not implemented fully as leaders intend’ due to staffing difficulties, leaving pupils’ learning ‘not as secure as it should be’.
• There are ‘inconsistencies’ in how well children’s language and communication skills are promoted in the Nursery, which ‘slows children’s progress’.

Safeguarding

The report states that ‘the arrangements for safeguarding are effective’.