Mary Immaculate High School

Overview

Mary Immaculate High School is described as a “warm and inclusive learning community” where pupils feel “safe, respected and part of the wider school family.” Leadership demonstrates a “heartfelt commitment to equity,” driving strong support systems for well-being and an engaging curriculum in the earlier years. However, the report highlights that attendance has not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels and identifies specific weaknesses in curriculum breadth and assessment quality from Year 9 onwards.

Strengths

• The school provides “strong and effective support for pupils’ well-being” through its Bridge provision and external partnerships.
• Staff benefit from a “highly beneficial tiered and targeted professional learning offer” that skilfully improves teaching and leadership.
• Pupils in Years 7 and 8 experience an “engaging curriculum,” while Key Stage 4 students access a “wide range of academic and vocational subjects” and industry mentors.
• Leaders are “passionate advocates” with a clear vision, resulting in “sustained improvements in many areas of its work.”

Areas to improve

• The curriculum breadth is “too narrow” from Year 9 onwards, and pupils have “too few opportunities” to develop Welsh language skills.
• Teachers do not always “adapt them well enough to meet the needs of all learners” or provide sufficient opportunities for pupils to improve their work.
• Self-evaluation processes are not focused well enough on the “impact of the school’s work on pupils’ learning.”

Safeguarding

The report states that “most pupils feel safe, respected and part of the wider school family” due to strong pastoral responsibility taken by all staff.