Outwood Grange Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Key Findings

Outwood Grange Academy provides an outstanding quality of education. The very large majority of parents and carers who returned an inspection questionnaire would recommend the academy to others.

Students' achievement is outstanding. When students enter the academy, their standards of attainment are above average. All groups of students make progress at a better than expected rate and attain very high standards by the end of Key Stage 4.

The sixth form is outstanding. Students of all abilities are admitted and all groups make rapid progress through courses well suited to their needs and aspirations. The overwhelming majority of students are successful in going on to education, employment or tra...ining after they leave the academy.

Students are very well prepared for this because work in a number of subjects, within the outstanding curriculum, helps them to achieve high standards in literacy, discussion, numeracy, and information and communication technology. Outstanding teaching is at the root of students' excellent achievement. Teachers have very high expectations and, in the majority of lessons, they provide challenging, interesting activities which considerably extend students' skills of learning independently.

The excellent behaviour of the vast majority of students contributes to an outstanding climate for learning, and this makes a significant contribution to their high levels of achievement. Students are very interested in learning about such matters as relationships, staying healthy, current affairs, global issues and right and wrong. They make good progress in these aspects of spiritual, moral, social and cultural development in such subjects as English, geography, science and design technology.

Work in many mixed-age 'vertical mentor groups' also makes a very strong contribution, however this is not consistent across the academy. The drive for the academy's success comes from the outstanding work of its leaders. They sustain, among almost all staff, a strong focus on achieving excellent outcomes for students through consistency in best practice.

Underpinning this is the academy's very systematic and effective approach to the professional development of leaders and teachers.

Information about the school

The academy is larger than most secondary schools. Six per cent of students are known to be eligible for free school meals.

Seven per cent are from minority ethnic backgrounds. Less than 4% of students have a disability and/or special educational needs. The academy opened in September 2009 as an Academy of Excellence, sponsored by the Outwood Grange Academies Trust.

It founded the Outwood Family of Academies, leading improvement in a number of other schools. It has been a National Training School for eight years and was recently accredited as a National Teaching School. The academy's performance is significantly above average in relation to all of the national floor standards for students' attainment and progress.

Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms