Dormers Wells High School

Overview

The report describes a school where leaders place inclusion at the heart of their work, ensuring pupils who face barriers to learning flourish. It highlights an environment characterised by high expectations, strong community ties, and a relentless ambition for all pupils to achieve their potential. The inspection found that the school provides a high-quality education where pupils feel safe, valued, and well-prepared for their future.

Strengths

• Inclusion is rated as "Exceptional", with leaders ensuring pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities make strong progress and flourish.
• Pupils achieve highly across the curriculum, with disadvantaged pupils showing attainment and progress significantly above national averages.
• Attendance rates are much higher than national averages, supported by a personalised approach to understanding barriers and a welcoming community ethos.
• Behaviour is described as exemplary, with pupils being "self-disciplined and respectful" in a calm and harmonious learning environment.
• Staff morale is high, underpinned by manageable workloads, substantial training programmes, and a collaborative culture with external agencies.

Areas to improve

• Leaders should ensure the impact of the taught curriculum is of a consistently high level across all subjects within the post-16 provision.
• Leaders should sustain and build on high standards in all curriculum subjects to eliminate pupils’ knowledge gaps so they can achieve their full potential.

Safeguarding

The safeguarding standards are met, with leaders establishing an open culture where safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon, and managed.