St Clement Danes School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

The school has improved since it was last inspected and developed into an outstanding school with an outstanding sixth form.

Students' academic excellence is matched by students' outstanding personal development. The school is a highly inclusive and extremely cohesive community. The many previously judged outstanding features have been maintained or enhanced further.

Attainment continues to improve; it is high and in some years and subjects, exceptionally so. The key improvement has been in students' achievement which is now outstanding. Students make extremely good and sometimes exceptional progress across the school.

This is the result of outstanding leadership at all levels. Self-...evaluation is based on forensic analysis of school data and draws on a wide range of other evidence; it is extremely accurate. The school is quick to pick up on any potential slippage in performance and translate this swiftly into highly effective action.

What drives school improvement is the commitment, shared by all staff, to ensure that all students have the very best of opportunities to succeed at the highest possible level. The school has outstanding capacity for sustaining ongoing improvement. Students' outstanding achievement is supported by the excellence of the school's provision.

In addition, the school's history, traditions and consistent high expectations by all staff create a powerful school ethos. Year 7 students are quick to absorb and be absorbed into this culture of high achievement. Individual needs are identified very early.

Very detailed monitoring and evaluation of students' progress, very challenging targets and early identification and targeted support are key to the school's success. Staff have an accurate understanding of where students are in their learning and lessons build effectively from that point. The result is that learning and teaching are outstanding.

Students move from one high-quality learning experience to another. Lessons mutually reinforce high expectations and ensure an overall upward spiral of achievement. The curriculum provided for students is outstanding in its depth, range and personalisation to meet individual needs.

The excellence of the care, guidance and support for students is a bedrock of the school. The school's engagement with parents and carers is outstanding. The school holds information meetings and publishes wide-ranging information to enable parents and carers to support their child's learning.

It also issues three progress reports per year to Years 7 to 10 However, parents' and carers' information is not yet available on line.

Information about the school

The school is much larger than average. The large majority of students are drawn from the immediate area.

The large majority of students are White British. The school roll is enriched by students being drawn from a range of other ethnic backgrounds, a few of whom speak English as an additional language; none are at an early stage of language acquisition. The proportion of students with special educational needs and/or disabilities is below average and the proportion with statements detailing their educational needs is low.

The proportion of students known to be eligible for free school meals is low. There has been a phased expansion programme which in turn has led to refurbishment and extension of school facilities. The school was recognised as a High Performing Secondary School and awarded a second specialism, science, to supplement its original specialism in modern foreign languages.

The school was awarded Healthy Schools status in 2009. The headteacher is recognised as a National Leader in Education and the school recognised as a National Support School in 2009. The school converted to Academy status in July 2011.

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