Inspection report

20-21 June 2007

Introduction

The inspection was carried out by one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors and three Additional Inspectors.

Description of the school

This smaller than average school provides education in the Catholic tradition and draws learners from a wide area of south Essex. However, just over half of the learners are not Catholic. Most live in parts of Basildon that have higher than average deprivation and relatively few adults who have experienced higher education. The proportion of learners known to be eligible for free school meals is well above the national average. Nearly 15% of the learners have minority ethnic heritage, which is just below the national average. Very few are at an early stage of learning English. Most year groups have roughly equal numbers of boys and girls, but Years 9 and 10 have three boys for every two girls. A quarter of learners have recognised learning difficulties or disabilities, whichis above average, but the proportion with a statement of special educational needs is close to the average. The school caters for all abilities, but has more learners joining the school with below average standards than above average standards, partly because some high attainers attend nearby selective schools.

Key for inspection grades

• Grade 1 – Outstanding
• Grade 2 – Good
• Grade 3 – Satisfactory
• Grade 4 – Inadequate

Overall effectiveness of the school – Grade: 2

De La Salle School is a good school where the great majority of learners enjoy their learning, behave well and work hard. It has undergone a transformation since the present headteacher was appointed in September 2004, something commented on by parents, learners, staff and visitors to the school. He has given an outstanding lead in establishing a calm and purposeful ethos that enables good achievement. By restructuring management roles and clarifying responsibilities, the headteacher has created a team who share his clear vision. Strong leadership, effective partnerships, good support from the local authority and a robust approachto under-performance have raised expectations, behaviour and achievement.

Teachers have been given clear guidance through policies for teaching and the use of assessment to support learning. As a result, nearly all lessons are at least satisfactory and many are good. Most learners know what it takes to reach their targets. They are well prepared for examinations and coursework.Senior staff monitor lessons daily, and this is helping teaching and learning to improve further. Some of the better lessons develop initiative and team workthat prepares learners well for their future economic well-being. Nevertheless, some aspects of teaching are inconsistent. These include the quality of marking, the development of independent learning skills and the extent to whichteaching meets the needs of all learners in the class.

The curriculum has been strengthened by new vocational and other options, but aspects suchas enterprise, work-related learning and extra-curricular provision are under-developed. Provision for mathematics and Englishis strong but the attention to literacy and numeracy in other lessons is inconsistent. Care, support and guidance are good, althoughsome aspects have only recently been established and their full impact is not yet clear. There are effective systems to identify and support learners who are underachieving and those withlearning difficulties.

When learners join in Year 7, they are an average of nearly a year behind the typical 11 year old. The school helps them to make good progress in Key Stage 3, so the learning gap is nearly halved by age 14. Examination results show a clear upward trend and the good progress is now being maintained in Key Stage 4. Learners currently in Year 11 are reaching standards that are close to the national average. Those withlearning difficulties or disabilities progress as well as their peers. Learners‘personal development is good. They are well informed about healthy lifestyles, feel safe at school and know who to talkto if they have problems. Nearly all say they enjoy school and this is reflected in attendance; whichis now close to the national average. Learners in Years 10 and 11 contribute strongly to the school and wider community but younger learners have fewer opportunities.

Leadership and management are good, despite some lapses in the sharpness of its improvement planning. The school has demonstrated a good capacity for improvement, by identifying and tackling six big issues:clarifying management roles; establishing an ethos conducive to learning; introducing more attractive and appropriate courses; improving lesson planning and structures; helping learners to understand examination requirements; and monitoring learners‘progress to identify and tackle underachievement. However, the school‘sself-evaluation has not been rigorous enoughto identify the complex and often subject-specific reasons behind the inconsistencies in teaching and learning.

What the school should do to improve further

• Increase the rigour of self-evaluation by:focusing on the impact of plans and policies rather than their implementation; analysing findings in more detail to identify more precisely how to improve further; and setting more ambitious targets.

• Improve the less consistent aspects of teaching and learning, suchas:quality of marking; development of independent learning; and attention to the full range of learners‘needs.

• Address the less effective aspects of the curriculum including: enterprise education; work-related learning; and guidance in schemes of workon literacy and numeracy development.

Achievement andstandards – Grade: 2

Achievement has improved considerably in the last three years and is now good. Learners progress well in science, very well in English and outstandingly in mathematics. They start the school nearly a year behind on average, but they make good progress in Key Stage 3. Standards at age 14 are still below average, but the deficit is almost halved by the end of Key Stage 3. Standards are also improving at age 16 and the school is now exceeding its targets for 14 and 16 year-olds. GCSE results had taken a substantial dip in 2005 and despite a considerable improvement were still below the national average in 2006,althoughmathematics and English results were relatively strong. The improvement in 2006was the first sign that the monitoring of learners’ progress, intensive test preparation and revision support were starting to workin Key Stage 4. There has been considerable further improvement in 2006/07. The school’s own assessments, whichhave been very reliable in recent years, show that current Year 11 learners are working at a standard close to the national average, having started the school withlow prior attainment. This represents good achievement. Achievement is reasonably consistent across gender and ethnic classifications. Learners withlearning difficulties or disabilities progress well because they receive increasingly effective support. A handful of learners follow alternative programmes that meet their needs well but do not lead to many GCSE or equivalent qualifications.

Personal development and well-being – Grade: 2

Learners’ personal development and well-being are good, contributing well to their improving progress. In this calm and orderly school most learners are polite, friendly, helpful and well-behaved. They enjoy school, showing positive attitudes, except occasionally when lessons are not challenging. Given the opportunity, they work very well in groups. Their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good, supported effectively by assemblies and in some departments and tutorials. Attendance has improved over the last two years to become average. The school‘s toughstance on behaviour that is bullying, aggressive or disrupts others’ learning is greatly appreciated by learners, who say they feel safe. The number of fixed-term exclusions caused by this policy, thoughdecreasing, remains fairly high; but few are excluded more than once. An enlightened water-drinking policy and firm line on smoking help learners to have healthy lifestyles. Year 10 and 11 learners contribute well to the community, but younger ones have fewer opportunities. Learners are generally well prepared for their future working lives, althoughsome lessons do not promote literacy and numeracy skills, and opportunities for work-related learning are limited.

Quality of provision

Teaching and learning – Grade:3

Inspectors agreed withthe school’s judgement of teaching and learning as satisfactory, but noted some good features. Teaching and learning in the school are improving because of the prime importance attached to them by the senior leaders. They regularly visit lessons, give feedbackto teachers and prioritise the professional development of all staff. The very good relations between adults and learners, reinforced by good behaviour management and by the learners‘positive attitudes, create a purposefulclassroom climate. Teachers plan lessons thoroughly and choose resources carefully, but often provide insufficient variation to meet different learners’ needs, especially the most able. Academic guidance is not always specific enough because both questioning and marking are sometimes too superficial.

In good lessons, teachers use their subject expertise imaginatively to stimulate or inspire, give clear explanations and widen learners‘understanding withskilfully posed questions, so that progress is good. They vary the pace and activities, and readily encourage and help individuals. These lessons are enjoyable because they include independent and group workand challenge learners to thinkfor themselves. Teaching is rarely unsatisfactory, but it is less effective in some lessons, often because activities are less imaginative, the pace is slower and tasks do not engage learners’ interest. These lessons are less motivating but learners’ good attitudes usually help them to maintain reasonable progress.

Leadership and management – Grade: 2

Leadership and management are good. The headteacher is a strong and charismatic leader with deeply held convictions. He gives an unambiguous sense of direction to the school; a transforming culture where the central importance of learning, hard work,courtesy and respect for others is embraced by staff and learners. His capable senior team share his vision. Withhim, they transmit it by their responsive presence around the school and their regular and supportive visits to lessons, a practice welcomed by learners and their teachers. The school works smoothly on a day-to-day basis and an atmosphere of calm, order and purpose prevails. Senior leaders have a good understanding of the school‘sstrengths and weaknesses. Middle management has been strengthened by training, new appointments and creating posts of heads of upper and lower school and faculty heads as line managers. The school has highexpectations of its staff, supporting them well through professional development. It promotes equality of opportunity but acknowledges that it does not stretch its ablest learners enough. Human and material resources are well deployed to achieve good value for money. Processes to monitor, evaluate and improve the performance of staff and learners are widespread, but insufficiently refined or systematic; weaknesses whichthe school is addressing. School development planning is extensive and detailed, but lacks measurable success criteria and is not always sharply focused. The governors are supportive of the school and increasingly involve themselves in its workand in holding it to account.

Any complaints about the inspection or the report shouldbbe made following the procedures set out in the guidance ‘Complaining about inspections’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk .

Annex B

Inspection judgements

Keyto judgements: grade 1 is outstanding, grade 2 good, grade 3 satisfactory, and grade 4 inadequate.

Overall effectiveness

How effective,efficient andinclusive is the provision ofeducation,integrated care andanyextendedservices in meetingthe needs of learners? – grade 2

How well does the school workin partnership withothers to promote Learners‘well-being? – grade 2

The quality and standards in the Foundation Stage
The effectiveness and efficiency of boarding provision
The effectiveness of the school‘sself-evaluation – grade 3

The capacity to make any necessary improvements – grade 2

Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection – grade Yes

Achievement and standards

How well do learners achieve? – grade 2

The standards ⁽¹⁾ reached by learners – grade 3

How well learners make progress, taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners – grade 2

How well learners with learning difficulties and disabilities make progress – grade 2

Personal development and well-being

How good is the overallpersonaldevelopment and well-being of the learners? – grade 2

The extent of learners‘spiritual, moral, social and cultural development – grade 2

The behaviour of learners – grade 2

The attendance of learners – grade 3

How well learners enjoy their education – grade 2

The extent to which learners adopt safe practices – grade 2

The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles – grade 2

The extent to whichlearners make a positive contribution to the community – grade 3

How well learners develop workplace and other skills that will contribute to their future economic well-being – grade 2

⁽¹⁾ Grade 1 – Exceptionally and consistently high; Grade 2 – Generally above average withnone
significantly below average; Grade 3 – Broadly average to below average; Grade 4 – Exceptionally low.

The quality of provision

How effective are teachingandlearningin meetingthe fullrange oflearners‘ needs? – grade 3

How well do the curriculum and other activities meet the range ofneeds and interests of learners? – grade 3

How well are learners cared for, guided and supported? – grade 2

Leadership and management

How effective are leadership andmanagement in raisingachievement and supporting all learners? – grade 2

How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading to improvement and promote highquality of care and education – grade 2

How effectively performance is monitored, evaluated and improved to meet challenging targets – grade 3

How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination tackled so that all learners achieve as well as they can – grade 2

How effectively and efficiently resources, including staff, are deployed to achieve value for money – grade 2

The extent to whichgovernors and other supervisory boards discharge their responsibilities – grade 3

Do procedures for safeguarding learners meet current government requirements? Yes

Does this school require special measures? No

Does this school require a notice to improve? No

Annex B

22 June 2007

Dear Pupils

Inspection of De LaSalle School, Basildon SS14 2LA

I am writing to tell you the results of your school’s inspection. Before I do that, I would like to thank you all, on behalf of the inspection team, for your co-operation and help during our visit.

Everyone we spoke to told us how much better the school has become since Mr Curnock took over as headteacher. He and the deputy and assistant heads worked as a team to make changes. They concentrated on a few big things;

• creating a calm atmosphere for learning
• improving your mathematics and English to help in all subjects
• improving the choice of courses in Key Stage 4
• making sure that lessons are well planned
• showing you how to succeed in examinations
• checking your progress regularly and supporting anyone who falls behind.

As a result, younow enjoy your learning, behave well and workhard. You know about healthy lifestyles, feel safe at school and know who to talkto if youhave problems. Your attendance is better and examination results are improving. The school helps youto make good progress, whichis important because the average pupil at De La Salle starts Year 7 quite a bit below the national average.

De La Salle School is a good school but it can get even better. We suggested that the school;

• looks in more detail at eachaspect of its workto identify changes that could
  make things better

• ensures that teachers are consistently good at things like: marking; planning
  for a range of abilities in the lesson; and making you think for yourselves

• improves the way it teaches youto be enterprising and to understand the
  world of work.

On behalf of the inspection team, I wish you all the best for the future.

Yours sincerely

Stephen Abbott HMI, Lead Inspector

© Crown copyright 2007

Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

This document may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that the information quoted is reproduced without adaptation and the source and date of publication are stated.

Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied.