Shiras Devorah High School

Overview: Shiras Devorah High School is an independent secondary day school for girls of Orthodox Jewish faith. The school provides a caring community where pupils are happy and enjoy their learning. However, the school has failed to meet the independent school standards, and the quality of education is not consistently good.

Strengths:

• Pupils describe the school as a very caring community and one in which they are happy.
• Pupils get along well with one another and bullying is rare.
• Pupils are mature and take responsibility for their own behaviour.
• Pupils are motivated by the school system of merits and they value the rewards that they receive.
• Teachers have good subject knowledge in their specialist subject areas.

Areas to improve:

• The school has not made sure that the curriculum in all subject areas is sequenced in a way that helps pupils to build their knowledge step by step and apply what they know to more complex ideas.
• In some instances, staff do not get the training that they need to implement the curriculum effectively.
• The curriculum for RSE does not take full account of what is required by the statutory guidance, for example about different forms of relationships.
• The PSHE programme does not promote respect for those with protected characteristics.

Safeguarding: The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.