Edgbarrow School

Unique Reference Number 110049

Local Authority  Bracknell Forest

Inspection number 325091

Inspection date  21 January 2009

Reporting inspector Lindsay Hebditch HMI

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

Type of school	Comprehensive
School category	Community
Age range of pupils	11-18
Gender of pupils	Mixed
Number on roll
School (total)	1163
Sixth form	203
Appropriate authority	The governing body
Chair	Mr John McNab
Headteacher	Mr Robert Elsey
Date of previous school inspection	30 November 2005
School address	Grant Road
Crowthorne
RG45 7HZ
Telephone number	01344 772658
Fax number	01344 776623
Age group	11-18
Inspection date	21 January 2009

Introduction

The inspection was carried out by one of Her Majesty's Inspectors and one Additional Inspector. The inspection evaluated the overall effectiveness of the school. It also investigated the following issues: achievement and standards, the quality of provision, and leadership and management. Evidence was gathered from the school's self-evaluation, national published assessment data and the school's own assessment records. Other evidence included completed parental questionnaires, the scrutiny of curriculum and planning documents, observation of the school's work and interviews with staff and students. Other aspects of the school's work were not investigated in detail, but the inspectors found no evidence to suggest that the school's own assessments, as given in its self-evaluation, were not justified, and these have been included where appropriate in this report.

Description of the school

Edgbarrow School is larger than average and serves the village of Crowthorne to the south of Bracknell. The proportion of students entitled to free school meals is low. Most students are of White British origin and very few speak English as an additional language. The number of students with learning difficulties and/or disabilities is below average but increasing. The school achieved specialist business and enterprise status in September 2004.

Key for inspection grades

Grade 1            Outstanding

Grade 2            Good

Grade 3            Satisfactory

Grade 4             Inadequate

Overall effectiveness of the school

Grade: 1

Edgbarrow School is an outstanding school. It provides an excellent learning environment in which all students feel valued. As a result, they enjoy their education and develop into responsible young adults. Parents praise the school for its responsiveness to their concerns and constant drive to improve standards. One parent summed up the views of many by saying that, 'Edgbarrow School is an excellent school which instils confidence in me as a parent.' Achievement and standards are outstanding. Students enter the school with above-average standards. They then make very good progress in each year so that by the end of Key Stage 4 their GCSE results are better than expected, based on their levels of prior attainment. The proportion of students who achieve five or more GCSE grades A* to C that include English and mathematics has increased each year since the last inspection and at 76% is now well above the national figure. Results in subjects related to the school's specialism in business and enterprise are outstanding. Students with learning difficulties and/or disabilities match the very good progress made by other students. The quality of students' work is high and is widely celebrated throughout the school in assemblies, presentation events and the highly effective corridor displays.

Personal development and well-being are outstanding. The vast majority of students enjoy coming to school and feel safe while they are there. This is reflected in their good levels of attendance and excellent behaviour. The school's rigorous procedures to deal with bullying are well understood by students and serious incidents are rare. Students make good efforts to develop healthy lifestyles. There are very good opportunities to participate in organised sports and the inter-school competitions are extremely popular. The school council has had an important role to play in improving the quality of school meals. Students make a good contribution to the community and understand its local, national and global dimensions. Spiritual, cultural, moral and social development is strong. The school makes excellent use of its specialism in business and enterprise to develop economic understanding. All students participate in the imaginative enterprise activities at the end of each school year.

Teaching and learning are good. Most teachers are highly experienced and knowledgeable about their subjects. This enables them to create an atmosphere of calm assurance in lessons which helps effective learning. The best lessons are well planned and engage students' attention at a variety of different levels. Questions are used effectively to challenge students' understanding. In a minority of lessons, learning is not as effective because teachers do not give sufficient attention to the different abilities and learning styles of students when planning and teaching their lessons. The school identified this issue through its self-evaluation. It has put in place imaginative initiatives, such as the introduction of coaching teams, to improve the consistency of teaching. Assessment is rigorous and the marking of students' work is thorough, providing formative comments and guidance on how the work could be improved.

The curriculum is good and provides students with exceptional opportunities to study subjects related to business and enterprise throughout the school. Students benefit from a broad range of academic courses and very good opportunities for curriculum enrichment. However, in order to respond more effectively to the emerging requirements for secondary education, including the introduction of new courses to equip students with the functional skills needed for the new diploma courses, the school has recognised the need to undertake a major curriculum review. Student participation in the extensive programme of extra-curricular events is very good and they say how much these activities add to their enjoyment of school.

Care, guidance and support are outstanding. The school has effective systems for ensuring that all students are looked after well. Procedures for safeguarding students meet government requirements. Very good relationships with primary schools ensure that students make a positive start in their new school. The excellent tutorial system benefits from the productive and trusting relationships which exist between teachers and students so that any personal issues which arise are dealt with swiftly and sympathetically. The outstanding student monitoring and support systems play a major role in sustaining the outstanding progress made by students. Procedures for setting targets are rigorous. The school database is used well to monitor students' academic progress and identify any underachievement. Students who find learning difficult receive excellent additional support and this helps them make very good progress.

Leadership and management are outstanding. The headteacher provides strong leadership and has a clear vision of how to take the school forward with the needs of individual students at its heart. He is ably supported by the senior leadership team and governors, who share this vision and help ensure that it is communicated effectively within and outside the school. Curriculum management is good. Quality assurance procedures are highly effective and help the school to maintain the steady improvement in standards. The popularity of the school has placed a strain on its accommodation and resources. Managers strive to minimise the resulting timetabling problems, but the use of general-purpose accommodation for specialist subjects makes it more difficult for teachers to plan imaginative lessons. The school has made excellent progress in the areas for improvement identified at the previous inspection. This, together with the school's comprehensive and accurate self-assessment and quality review, gives the school outstanding capacity to improve.

Effectiveness of the sixth form

Grade: 2

The sixth form is good. Increasing numbers of students are staying on in the sixth form and the retention rate is high. Students make good progress in relation to their starting points and achieve well in GCE AS-level and A-level examinations. Teaching is good. The curriculum is satisfactory. It provides an appropriate range of advanced level subjects but there are insufficient opportunities for students to combine their studies with vocational options. Students speak highly of the personal support they receive and in particular praise the quality of the advice they receive in preparation for their future careers or progression into higher education. Leadership and management of the sixth form are good. Sixth form accommodation is unsatisfactory; there is insufficient social space for students.

What the school should do to improve further

• ■ Develop the range of curriculum opportunities in the main school and in the sixth form.

• ■ Improve the consistency of teaching so that all lessons are challenging and support effective learning.

Annex A

Inspection judgements

Key to judgements: grade 1 is outstanding, grade 2 good, grade 3 satisfactory, and grade 4 inadequate

School Overall

16-19

Overall effectiveness

How effective,efficient and inclusive is the provision of education,integrated care and any extended services in meeting the needs of learners?	1	2
Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection	Yes	Yes
How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners' well being?	1	1
The capacity to make any necessary improvements	1	1

Achievement and standards

How well do learners achieve?	1	2
The standards1 reached by learners	1	2
How well learners make progress, taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners	1	2
How well learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities make progress	1

Personal development and well-being

How good are the overall personal development and well-being of the learners?	1	1
The extent of learners' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development	1	2
The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles	2	2
The extent to which learners adopt safe practices	1	1
The extent to which learners enjoy their education	1	1
The attendance of learners	2	2
The behaviour of learners	1	1
The extent to which learners make a positive contribution to the community	2	2
How well learners develop workplace and other skills that will contribute to their future economic well-being	1	1

The quality of provision

How effective are teaching and learning in meeting the full range of learners' needs?	2	2
How well do the curriculum and other activities meet the range of needs and interests of learners?	2	3
How well are learners cared for, guided and supported?	1	1

Leadership and management

How effective are leadership and management in raising achievement and supporting all learners?	1	2
Howeffectivelyleadersandmanagersatalllevelssetclear direction leading to improvement and promote high qualityof care and education	1
How effectively leaders and managers use challenging targets to raise standards	1
The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation	1	2
How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination eliminated	1
How well does the school contribute to community cohesion?	2
How effectively and efficiently resources, including staff, are deployed to achieve value for money	1
The extent to which governors and other supervisory boards discharge their responsibilities	1
Do procedures for safeguarding learners meet current government requirements?	Yes	Yes
Does this school require special measures?	No
Does this school require a notice to improve?	No