A SECONDARY school in Taunton is celebrating after receiving a "good" Ofsted report. 

Bishop Fox's School was inspected by Ofsted on February 22, maintaining its "good" rating since April 2013. 

The report praised the school's leadership team for keeping up the good standards and for working to reduce the rate of exclusions at the school.

Kerry Tonkin moved from deputy head of the school to headteacher in January 2017.

Ofsted inspectors said that Ms Tonkin provided a "sense of continuity and cohesion" for staff and pupils while preparing to move the school on the next stage. 

The report said: 

  • The school’s work to improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment is having a positive impact.
  • The headteacher knows her staff well and works with her senior colleagues to hold middle leaders to account for the progress pupils make. Consequently middle leaders, particularly in English, mathematics and science, are driving improvements in the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. 
  • The school has focused clearly on areas of poorer performance. It has undertaken a number of departmental reviews working with external consultants to act as a catalyst for improvement. They have provided a sound basis for the school to improve its performance in these areas.
  • In design and technology and history, for example, there is good evidence that the recommendations of the review have been embraced and teachers’ practice is improving as a result. 
  • The school has developed its own ‘teaching and learning framework’ to support teachers to explore and develop approaches that work best for them in the classroom. This is supplemented by the effective deployment of teaching coaches who work alongside colleagues to encourage them to reflect on and improve their teaching. Together, these approaches are leading to further improvements in the quality of teaching. 
  • Pupils behave well around the school and in lessons. The previously high rates of exclusion have dropped as a result of the support you have put in place for pupils who display challenging behaviour.
  • The quality of work and performance of boys is improving, although it is still weaker than that of girls. School leaders are aware of this and are taking steps to address it. For example, a project to inspire boys to improve their literacy skills is just beginning. This, however, is a long-term project across all year groups and it is too soon to judge its impact at this stage.
  • The school is working hard to ensure that disadvantaged pupils maximise their potential.
  • Historically, the attendance of disadvantaged pupils has been weak and their rate of exclusion too high. School leaders have reacted appropriately and their actions are enabling disadvantaged pupils to overcome their barriers to success. As a result, achievement for this group is rising, attendance is now in line with the national average and exclusions have dropped markedly. The school also reports an increase in parental engagement at, for example, parents’ evenings.
  • Disadvantaged pupils are currently making good progress across the school. However, the school’s plans for spending the pupil premium funding lack precision and leaders are unable to say which of the strategies they employed had the greatest impact. This is preventing them from using the additional funding as effectively as they might.

Ms Tonkin said: “We know that Bishop Fox’s is a good school, and in many ways better than good, and I am pleased that the Ofsted inspection team found sufficient evidence to agree with this judgement.

"We have worked tirelessly to improve outcomes for our students over many years and also to offer a broad range of experiences within and beyond the classroom. The culture of high standards and high expectations underpins everything that we do.

"As the headteacher I was encouraged by the tremendous support that the school has within our local community, comments received from staff, governors, parents and students were wholly positive. It was heartening to hear in the feedback from the lead inspector that he thought that we had all of the ingredients to be outstanding in the future”.

To read the full report visit reports.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/ELS/136851