St Patricks & St Brigids College

Overview

St Patrick’s & St Brigid’s College is described as a maintained, co-educational school with a vision aligned to its Catholic values, aiming to “support, nurture and develop young people academically, socially, emotionally and spiritually”. The inspection found that planning, teaching and assessment are “mostly effective”, with a curriculum well planned to reflect pupils’ interests and ambitions. However, the school is at an “early stage” in re-establishing monitoring processes and requires improvement in the consistency of teaching quality and pupil engagement in decision-making.

Strengths

• The school fosters a “highly supportive culture” with effective pastoral support, including a wellbeing hub that has led to “measurable improvements” in pupils’ mental health.
• Staff “know the pupils well” and effectively identify barriers to learning early, providing bespoke interventions for pupils with special educational needs.
• The curriculum is “broad, balanced” and informed by learners’ interests, with successful links to community stakeholders and industry networks like GEMX.
• Pupils’ successes are celebrated well through classroom displays, assemblies, and social media, contributing to improved confidence and self-esteem.

Areas to improve

• Improve the “consistency and quality of the planning, teaching and assessment for successful learning”, ensuring all lessons provide adequate “stretch and challenge”.
• Implement “more rigorous monitoring and evaluating processes” across the school, including better use of pupil views to inform planning.
• Provide pupils with “meaningful opportunities to share their views and contribute to decision-making” about their learning experiences.

Safeguarding

The report states that “arrangements for child protection align to the current statutory guidance” and that pupils know who to speak to if they have concerns.