The school remains to require improvement but was graded as good for personal development, leadership and management and sixth form provision, and ‘requires improvement’ for the ‘quality of education’ and ‘behaviour and attitudes’.
The areas the school needs to improve is curriculum delivery, ongoing adaptations to support pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEND) and the standard of pupils’ behaviour.
The report highlighted areas of strengths in curriculum, reading, behaviour in lessons, and personal development, including the “broad range of extra-curricular activities” and the “nurturing support and education to help all pupils understand how to manage their mental health”.
In particular, the report highlighted the strength of Sixth Form provision, stating “In the Sixth Form, the programmes of study are ambitious” and “The school ensures all sixthform students are well supported to complete their courses. It helps students to overcome any barriers to their learning”.
Inspectors praised the impact of recent changes at the school, stating that “Leaders have recently raised expectations of pupils’ behaviour” and that “leaders evaluate and identify next steps for the school thoroughly”.
Tom Inman, headteacher, said: “Work has begun in earnest to put in practices to build a more sustained positive culture across the whole school. There is now positivity from staff, parents and pupils about the early impact of this work”.
“We fully support the findings of the report, which we feel gives a fair representation of where the school is at in its journey. We have been very open with our community about the areas where we need to develop as a school, and it is reassuring that the OFSTED inspection team identified those same areas for development as well as recognising significant strengths, which are the result of the very hard work taking place across our staff body and the invaluable support of our families”
“We are resolute in our mission to serve the Exmouth community as best we can by giving our young people a really good secondary education, and we are reassured that the inspectors have recognised the emerging impact of recent work and the positivity that this is bringing in the community”.
Jason Hill, chair of governors said “The OFSTED team very much saw the school that we described to them; where there are some real strengths, and where there are some key areas of development in exactly the areas that we have already identified and started to work on. I’d like recognise the support we had through this inspection from both the staff, students, governors and the community and to thank them for their ongoing support as we continue on our journey. I would also acknowledge the courteous, professional and fair way in which OFSTED conducted the inspection.”
