Darrick Wood School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school Leaders are ambitious for all pupils and are committed to improving their life chances.

Leaders communicate their high aspirations successfully to pupils, parents, carers and staff. Leaders have a good understanding of the school's strengths and weaknesses. They know what to do to make the school even better and have introduced effective improvement plans.

Leaders work hard to ensure that staff are supported in their work and take staff well-being seriously. Staff enjoy working at the school. Governors are experienced and committed.

They hold leaders to account for the work of the school. Pupils are well behaved and polite. They ...treat each other with respect and dignity.

Staff ensure that pupils are safe in the school. Pupils demonstrate good attitudes towards their learning. They are rarely absent from school or late to lessons.

Students in the sixth form receive high-quality advice and guidance. Leaders ensure that all students study appropriate courses. Parents and carers are highly supportive of the school.

They value the leadership provided by the headteacher and his leadership team. Teaching is of good quality and teachers demonstrate good subject knowledge. Teachers do not use questioning routinely in lessons to deepen pupils' knowledge and understanding.

In their planning, teachers do not consistently consider pupils' different starting points. This includes the needs of those pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) who do not have an education, health and care (EHC) plan, and the most able pupils. In 2018 pupils in Year 11 made average progress overall.

Pupils currently in the school are making stronger progress in a range of subjects, including English, mathematics, science and modern foreign languages. Pupils who have an (EHC) plan and receive support from the hearing impairment unit make good progress. Disadvantaged pupils in Year 11 in 2018 made slower progress than other pupils.

Disadvantaged pupils currently in the school are also making slower progress than their peers. Leaders have introduced systems to monitor how well pupils are doing. However, they do not use this information to ensure that all groups of pupils are doing as well as they should.

Information about this school

Darrick Wood School is a larger-than-average secondary academy which opened in December 2010. There is a hearing impairment resource provision within the school. This is managed by the local authority.

All pupils who receive support from the provision are fully integrated into the school. The majority of pupils are from a white British background. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is significantly below the national average.

The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is below the national average and in the lowest 20% of all schools nationally. The proportion of pupils who have an EHC plan is above that of other schools. There are no pupils attending alternative provision.

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