Sheldon School is the “best comprehensive school in England”!

Sheldon School has received a perfect inspection report from Ofsted, the government’s school inspection agency. Sheldon was rated as an “outstanding” school, and achieved the very rare accolade of being rated as “outstanding” for all 38 grades which make up the school inspection report.

In the first two years since the new school inspection system was introduced in 2005, only six of the 1,500 mixed comprehensive schools in England which were inspected achieved perfect grades from Ofsted.

With Sheldon’s past record – it was already the only 11-18 comprehensive school on Ofsted’s list of just fourteen schools to have been named as “outstanding providers” on three occasions – there is strong evidence that it is rated the best comprehensive school in England.

This is a selection of comments from the report:

This is an outstanding school. When it was inspected three years ago, it was judged to be very good with many outstanding features. It has improved significantly since then.

Parents recognise and appreciate the school’s quality.

The school’s continuing improvement is as a result of highly effective leadership and management at all levels. The headteacher and other senior staff set a strong and clear direction. They have a highly accurate picture of the school’s significant strengths, but are not complacent.

The school has a strongly positive ethos. Students’ behaviour, attitudes and relationships with teachers are excellent.

Students’ well-developed literacy, numeracy and personal skills make a very strong contribution to their future employability and economic well-being.

The wide range of extra-curricular sporting opportunities and the high quality of food in the canteen make a strong contribution to students’ ability to live healthily.

The standard of teaching is consistently high. The very large majority of lessons are good or better and a significant number are outstanding. As a result, students are enthusiastic and enjoy learning. Lessons are well structured, varied and interesting, and excellent relationships help to create a very positive learning environment. The quality of class discussion is high.

A particular strength of the school’s outstanding curriculum is the extremely wide range of enrichment and extra-curricular activities.

A particular strength of the excellent care, guidance and support provided is the way in which the school supports the transition into Year 7. This helps students to move easily into a large secondary school.

Strong behaviour management systems help to maintain very high standards of behaviour; the exclusion rate is low and significant lesson disruption is rare.

The school has an outstanding sixth form. The sixth form has doubled in size in recent years and a high proportion of students now stay on. This rapid development has been very well led and the increase in size has been achieved without a dip in the high quality of provision.