Cardinal Newman Catholic High School

Overview

Cardinal Newman Catholic High School is described as a “happy and welcoming” environment where pupils feel “valued by leaders” and are “proud to be part” of the community. The report highlights that staff foster “positive and encouraging relationships,” ensuring pupils feel “well supported and cared for,” which contributes to a “calm and orderly atmosphere.” Overall, the school provides a high-quality education where pupils “rise well to these expectations” and achieve well, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

Strengths

• Leaders have “thought carefully about the knowledge that they want pupils to learn,” ensuring learning builds effectively on prior knowledge and prepares pupils for the next stage of education.
• Teachers use their subject knowledge well to “explain concepts and deepen pupils’ learning,” while staff appreciate training that helps them “refine how they deliver subject curriculums.”
• Pupils with SEND receive “appropriate support” based on “suitably detailed information” from leaders, helping them to “learn well as they move through the school.”
• The school provides a “wealth of opportunities to extend their learning beyond the taught curriculum,” including clubs, excursions, and roles such as prefects or school council representatives.
• Staff are “trained well in how to use leaders’ safeguarding procedures” and work effectively with external agencies to support vulnerable pupils.

Areas to improve

• In a small number of subjects, teachers’ use of assessment strategies is not always effective in “identifying pupils’ misconceptions or pinpointing the gaps in their knowledge,” which hinders some pupils from learning the curriculum as well as they could.

Safeguarding

The report states that “the arrangements for safeguarding are effective,” with staff knowledgeable about local risks and pupils taught how to keep themselves safe in the wider community and online.