Ofsted 2022 Inspection 

On 9 & 10 November 2022, Warlingham School & Sixth Form College was inspected by Ofsted and continues to be judged as a good school. As a school judged to be ‘Good’ following our previous Ofsted inspection in 2017, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005, we received an ungraded inspection to confirm whether the school remains good and that safeguarding is effective.  

In their report, the Inspectors observed that ‘Warlingham is a welcoming, friendly school’ with ‘strong pastoral support’ and noted that there is a very positive relationship between both staff and pupils and pupils and their peers, resulting in a school where ‘pupils are happy and feel safe’.  The Inspectors spoke very highly of our Safeguarding procedures and policy and commented that ‘there is a strong culture of safeguarding within the school’.

The Ofsted report highlights the following features of the school:

• Leaders have high expectations of pupils where our values of courage, commitment and kindness run through every aspect of school life.  
• Leaders are ambitious for pupils’ learning. Pupils speak positively about this expectation, and they live up to it.  Consequently, pupils achieve well.
• The curriculum is well planned, broad and balanced with a wide range of options at Key Stage 4 and in the Sixth Form. 
• Staff are proud to work at Warlingham and everyone wants the school to be the best it can be.
• We have an excellent SEND provision, where pupils with SEND make good strides because they benefit from extra interventions. Students also value support from staff at The Bridge and The Maple Room.
• Careers provision is a strength of the school and leaders ensure that pupils and Sixth Form students are well prepared for their next steps.
• Students have access to a large selection of enrichment activities outside the classroom, including clubs, sports, trips, and Activities Week.

These areas are essential for our drive to continuously improve the outcomes of every student to grow into well-rounded Warlingham Learners.

Whilst the report is very positive, we believe there is no room for complacency and so we will be working on implementing strategies to address the two areas where the Inspectors felt we could improve as soon as possible.

Firstly, whilst it was acknowledged that leaders recognise that more pupils would benefit from studying a more challenging curriculum, such as the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), the report highlighted that too few pupils in Key Stage 4 choose to study a modern language, resulting in a lower proportion of pupils gaining the EBacc than the Government’s and school’s ambition.  In light of this, we will be reviewing our guidance to students and parents, as well as the options process, to secure the continued study of a language for more students as a key skill for life.

Secondly, it was commented that not all teachers use assessment information well enough to adapt learning to meet pupils’ needs to ensure that knowledge embeds securely in pupils’ long-term memory.  We have already worked hard to develop teacher and student understanding of memory and learning; however, we will be building on this to ensure a more direct impact in lessons and on day-to-day learning for all students.  

The inspectors commented on the very high number of students, parents/carers and staff who completed the Ofsted online questionnaire and the overwhelmingly positive nature of these responses and we would like to thank everyone for their contribution.

For further details about Ofsted and the Inspection framework, please visit the Ofsted website.