Whitchurch High School

Overview

Whitchurch High School is described as a “caring and inclusive community” where pupils feel safe and staff feel valued. The school is undergoing purposeful change under new leadership, with a strong focus on supporting well-being and additional learning needs, although some curriculum and teaching developments are still in their early stages.

Strengths

• The school provides effective care, support, and guidance, tailoring provision to meet the needs of nearly all pupils.
• Support for pupils’ well-being and provision for those with additional learning needs are identified as “significant strengths.”
• Pupils attending the specialist base, Ty Calon, “enjoy school, make strong progress and achieve well.”
• Teachers with strong subject knowledge plan successful learning experiences, leading to good progress for many pupils.
• Senior leaders have developed worthwhile strategies to support pupils and families affected by poverty, which is beginning to positively impact attendance and achievement.

Areas to improve

• Sharpen self-evaluation processes to focus precisely on areas requiring improvement and the impact of provision on pupil progress.
• Improve the quality of teaching and assessment to ensure all pupils are challenged sufficiently to extend their thinking.
• Strengthen the coordination of the progressive development of pupils’ skills in literacy and numeracy.

Safeguarding

The report states that the school is working with the local authority to address a few health and safety concerns discussed during the inspection.