Chatham and Clarendon Grammar School

Clarendon Gardens

Ramsgate

KentCT11 9BB

Head: Mrs D Liddicoat

T 01843 591074

F 01843 851824

W www.ccgrammarschool.co.uk

A state school for girls aged from 11 to 18.

Boarding: No

Local authority: Kent

Pupils: 817

Religion: None

Chatham Street, Ramsgate, Kent, CT11 7PS

Inspection dates 11-12 September 2014

Previous inspection: Overall effectiveness This inspection:	Not previously inspected as an academy Good	2
Leadership and management	Good	2
Behaviour and safety of pupils	Good	2
Quality of teaching	Good	2
Achievement of pupils	Good	2
Sixth form provision	Good	2

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school.

It is not yet an outstanding school because

■ Some teachers do not routinely use information about their students' prior achievement to plan activities that are exciting and challenging.

■ Not all teachers use questioning to probe students' understanding of new information in sufficient depth. This limits their progress.

Information about this inspection

• ■ Inspectors observed 34 lessons, of which three were joint observations with senior leaders. In addition, the inspectors made a number of shorter visits to classrooms, jointly with school leaders. The purpose of this was to evaluate the achievement of boys and to look at students' learning and progress in music and physical education.

• ■ Meetings were held with school staff, including senior and middle leaders, newly qualified teachers and members of the attendance, behaviour and support teams. Inspectors also met with the school business manager, representatives from the governing body and the local authority.

• ■ Four groups of students talked to inspectors about their views of the school. The inspection team spoke informally to students at break and lunchtime and around the school.

• ■ Inspectors took account of 150 responses to the Ofsted online survey, Parent View. They also considered letters and telephone calls from parents and 73 responses to the staff questionnaire.

• ■ Inspectors scrutinised a range of documentation, including students' work, attainment and progress information. They also considered plans for making changes to subjects, and information on target-setting for teachers. Minutes of governing body meetings, school self-evaluation and development plans and records of safeguarding, behaviour and attendance were also looked at. The inspection team observed the work of the school at break and lunchtime and at lesson changeover, and visited an assembly and tutor time.

Inspection team

Janet Hallett, Lead inspector

Full report

Information about this school

• ■ Chatham & Clarendon Grammar School is a larger-than-average-sized mixed selective school. It is a new school formed from the merger of the former Chatham House Grammar School and Clarendon House Grammar School in September 2013.

• ■ The school has single-gender teaching for boys and girls in the lower school and also in the core subjects in the upper school. There are mixed classes in option subjects in the upper school and throughout the sixth form.

• ■ There are slightly more boys than girls and the vast majority of students are from White British backgrounds. The proportion of students from minority ethnic groups and those who speak English as an additional language is well below average.

• ■ The proportion of students for whom the school receives the pupil premium is below average. This is additional government funding for students known to be eligible for free school meals and children who are looked after. There are a few children who are looked after.

• ■ The proportion of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs on the school roll is below average.

• ■ The school meets the government current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for students' attainment and progress.

• ■ The school was awarded Artsmark Gold in September 2014.

• ■ The school does not make use of any off-site training.

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• ■ Raise students' achievement further and improve the impact of teaching by ensuring:

• - teachers use information on students' prior achievement in planning activities that are sufficiently difficult, so that students can make even faster progress

• - all students have the opportunity to answer probing questions so that teachers can check what students understand.

Inspection judgements

The leadership and management             are good

• ■ The leadership of the headteacher and senior team is good. Throughout the period of the merger of the two schools they have always put the children first and maintained a strong focus on teaching and learning. This has had a positive and rapid impact on the values, beliefs and culture of the new school and on student achievement. Leaders' plans to improve the school are robust and understood by all staff. Leaders have correctly identified the right areas for further improvement. School leaders know their school well but leadership and management are not yet outstanding because some actions have yet to have a full impact on standards.

• ■ Developing the quality of teaching is a key priority for the school and is very effectively led by members of the senior team. Teaching skills and learning activities are checked and evaluated through learning walks, unannounced lesson observations and book scrutinies. Programmes to improve teaching are well established and valued by staff. The merger of the two schools has proved to be a rich source of peer support and for sharing good practice.

• ■ The school has a robust system for tracking information so that subject leaders and teachers can check students' progress towards their targets. This new system is not yet used to its full potential by all staff, and subject leaders recognise their role in making sure that all staff use information on students' progress to plan their teaching.

• ■ Staff morale is high. Middle leaders are confident, and fully understand and support the focus on developing students' learning to ensure that they make better progress. They correctly evaluate the strengths of their own teams as well as areas for improvement. They are increasingly expected to hold staff to account.

• ■ Newly qualified teachers are pleased and proud to work in the school and feel very well supported by subject mentors and the senior team. They are fully aware of the key priorities of the school and are committed to improving and developing their own teaching.

• ■ The range of subjects is broad and balanced, meets the needs of all students and prepares them for life in modern Britain. New subjects have been introduced into the upper school as a result of the merger to provide more choice for students and additional challenge for the most able.

• ■ Leaders have established effectively an inclusive, ethos for the school which prioritises students' interests and needs. As a result students' spiritual, moral social and cultural development is promoted very well by a range of activities and events, through the house system and in lessons. For example, the majority of students enjoy music and sport and participation rates are high.

• ■ Parents are overwhelmingly supportive of the school.

• ■ Students are given clear and unbiased guidance and careers information and they are well prepared for the next stage of their lives in education and employment.

• ■ Safeguarding procedures meet current requirements.

• ■ The school maintains a strong relationship with the local authority and receives support when it is required.

The governance of the school:

• - Over the last two years, the governing body has worked very closely with the headteacher and has been rightly focused on completing the successful merger of the two schools. However, it appreciates that it now has a key role and responsibility to play in developing a coherent, shared vision, which is vital for the future of the school. Work has already started on this and the governors have high levels of professional skill as well as the commitment needed to make it a success.

• - Governors are rightly involved in making sure that decisions about pay for teachers are linked to information about performance. They have an accurate view on how student performance compares with that of similar schools, locally and nationally and are increasingly holding senior leaders effectively to account.

• - Governors have had training on understanding school performance information.

• - They have a strategic overview of the impact of pupil premium funding as well as the expenditure and provision. The school is financially secure.

• - The governing body ensure that the school meets statutory requirements for safeguarding.

The behaviour and safety of pupils

• ■ The behaviour of students is good. Students' conduct around the school is exemplary. They are respectful towards adults and each other and welcoming and courteous to visitors. They manage themselves around the different school sites with maturity and ease. They respond positively to the high level of trust which the school places on them, and break and lunchtimes are calm and purposeful.

• ■ Behaviour in classrooms is good because relationships are strong and teaching is good. However, behaviour is not yet outstanding because teaching does not yet consistently promote a thirst and love of learning.

• ■ The school's work to keep students safe and secure is good. Students are clear that they feel safe in school, and parents unanimously agree. Students know how to keep themselves safe when using the internet as a result of information given to them assemblies and in lessons.

• ■ Students take responsibility for their own behaviour but know when to involve adults if necessary. They say that bullying, including racist and homophobic bullying, is very rare but when it happens it is dealt with effectively. The school uses assemblies effectively to communicate to students the expectation that there must be no tolerance of bullying.

• ■ Attendance has improved with the appointment of an attendance officer and is now above the national average. Systems for monitoring attendance and punctuality are robust and liaison with families to follow up absences and concerns is swift and effective. Attendance of disadvantaged students supported by the pupil premium is in line with the cohort as a whole.

• ■ Actions to reduce exclusions are working successfully and the behaviour support team work effectively with individual students and their families as part of an induction process into Year 7.

• ■ Students' spiritual moral, social and cultural development is very effectively promoted through teaching. For example, students are given time to reflect and explore their feelings and views. In a boys' Year 9 personal and social education session, pupils very sensitively considered racism and the impact of racism on the victims. Outstanding teaching enabled the boys to respond sensitively and empathetically and extend their understanding of the impact of racism on life in modern-day Britain.

The quality of teaching

• ■ Teaching is good because teachers have excellent subject knowledge and plan learning activities that result in high levels of engagement. As a result, students sustain high levels of concentration and make good progress. They develop a wide range of skills for effective learning. Teaching is not yet outstanding because in some classrooms not all students are sufficiently challenged and teachers' questioning skills are currently underdeveloped.

• ■ The teaching of skills enables students to make good progress in a range of subjects. Teaching of subjectspecific skills in art, design and technology, physical education and performance subjects is well planned and effective. In the sixth form, teaching of important learning skills such as note-taking is strong.

• ■ Relationships between students and teachers are strong and students work very well together. In a girls' Year 10 science session, they worked in groups to research and draw together information on generating electricity. Their confidence and maturity enabled them to work quickly, swapping roles as necessary and deciding who in the group would be best suited to each question. As a result, they made good progress in science and in developing cooperative skills for the workplace.

• ■ Students are respectful of each other's views and contribute energetically to discussion, with the confidence to raise differing viewpoints. In a Year 12 government and politics lesson on democracy, very effective teaching enabled students to contribute to a lively discussion with links to the Scottish referendum. Pupils listened well and were able to reflect on the deeper meaning of independence.

• ■ Maintaining some single-gender teaching in the new school has had a successful impact on driving up standards. Students like this way of organising classes in core subjects and also appreciate working together in option subjects and the sixth form. The girls believe that the boys have benefitted from higher standards of behaviour and engagement in classrooms, while the boys value the different ideas that the girls bring to discussions.

• ■ Students' literacy skills are well developed. Writing is a real strength of the school and inspectors were struck by the obvious love of writing from boys as well as girls. Teachers set high expectations and students take great pride in the content, presentation and structure of their work.

• ■ Extra help in literacy is available for students who fall behind, with short programmes and one-to-one support.

• ■ Numeracy is slightly less well developed but consistently strong examples were observed in a range of subjects, and particularly in science and geography.

■ Students receive detailed feedback on their work and guidance as to what they need to do to improve their work. However, this is not yet of a consistently high standard across all subjects in all year groups. Some excellent examples of students checking each other's work were seen, particularly in the sixth form.

The achievement of pupils

• ■   Students enter the school with prior attainment which is above average, and in 2013 they achieved high levels of attainment in most subjects. Students' progress is now improving much more rapidly, as a result of good teaching, and so in 2014 both boys and girls made more progress. Achievement is not yet outstanding because a few students do not yet make enough progress in their GCSE mathematics courses. Also, the most able sixth form students do not always achieve the highest grades of which they are capable.

• ■   Achievement in English is particularly strong. Attainment in English is in the top 20% compared with similar selective schools nationally. Also, more boys and girls, equally, are making high levels of progress compared with national figures.

• ■   In English, the single-gender teaching policy promotes equality of opportunity very effectively and ensures that boys and girls can build confidence and develop the skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing to a high level with confidence. Teachers have high expectations of the quality of extended writing, and the presentation of boys' work generally matches that of the girls. Achievement in English literature is outstanding.

• ■   Students' progress in mathematics is improving quickly. However, the school recognises that there is more to be done to enable all students, but particularly the most able, to achieve the grades of which they are capable.

• ■   The progress of the more able students is improving quickly in all subjects and more students are now attaining the highest grades at GCSE.

• ■   Students from minority ethnic groups and students with English as an additional language make very good progress. The progress of White British students is improving rapidly.

• ■   Disabled students and those with special educational needs achieve well and in line with their peers. This is as a result of a diverse range of strategies and skilled teaching assistants who provide high levels of support for students.

• ■   The achievement of disadvantaged students eligible for support through the pupil premium funding is rising and the gaps in attainment between these students and others in the school are closing rapidly. In 2014, for English, the gap has closed, and for mathematics it has closed to within one quarter of a GCSE grade. This is as a result of good teaching and improved attendance.

The sixth form provision                      is good

• ■   Students enjoy their time in the sixth form; they develop good skills which enable them to learn by themselves and cooperatively in groups. They engage very purposefully in learning activities and are determined to do well. Students who joined the sixth form from other schools are clear that their expectations have been at least met, if not exceeded. They appreciate their teachers' passion for their subject and how well prepared teachers are for lessons. Students receive very good feedback on their work. The sixth form is not yet outstanding because not enough students capable of achieving the highest grades do so.

• ■   Students are excellent role models for younger students and they take a lead role in running clubs for younger students, such as the choir, and organise fundraising events. Their conduct around the school is exemplary.

• ■  The leadership and management of the sixth form are good. Students receive high quality careers education, information and guidance. Personalised support and good teaching help them learn. In 2014 all students entered higher education, training or employment. The vast majority entered universities of their choice.

What inspection judgements mean

School
Grade	Judgement	Description
Grade 1	Outstanding	An outstanding school is highly effective in delivering outcomes that provide exceptionally well for all its pupils' needs. This ensures that pupils are very well equipped for the next stage of their education, training or employment.
Grade 2	Good	A good school is effective in delivering outcomes that provide well for all its pupils' needs. Pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education, training or employment.
Grade 3	Requires improvement	A school that requires improvement is not yet a good school, but it is not inadequate. This school will receive a full inspection within 24 months from the date of this inspection.
Grade 4	Inadequate	A school that has serious weaknesses is inadequate overall and requires significant improvement but leadership and management are judged to be Grade 3 or better. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors. A school that requires special measures is one where the school is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the school's leaders, managers or governors have not demonstrated that they have the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors.

School details

Unique reference number	136382
Local authority	Kent
Inspection number	447661

This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

Type of school	Grammar (selective)
School category	Academy converter
Age range of pupils	11-19
Gender of pupils	Mixed
Gender of pupils in the sixth form	Mixed
Number of pupils on the school roll	1372
Of which, number on roll in sixth form	521
Appropriate authority	The governing body
Chair	Richard Bath
Headteacher	Debra Liddicoat
Date of previous school inspection	Not previously inspected
Telephone number	01843 591075
Fax number	01843 851907
Email address	admin@ccgrammarschool.co.uk