Bellingham Middle School and Sports College

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 1 April 2025

Bellingham middle school is friendly and welcoming. Pupils are very polite. They treat each other and visitors with kindness and respect. The school has recently experienced an unsettled period, mainly due to changes in staffing and leadership arrangements. The school has begun to address some aspects of the quality of education that need to be improved. For example, many curriculum areas are now well sequenced. However, outcomes for pupils are varied. The school ensures that pupils enjoy attending school. It has established a friendly ethos, where staff help pupils diligently and consistently. Staff build positive relationships with pupils effectively. As a result, pupils feel safe. The school engages successfully with parents and carers, who are rightly positive about the school's supportive culture. The school encourages pupils to celebrate difference positively and to be respectful of one another. Pupils lead assemblies on religions confidently that may be different from their own. Pupils generally show positive attitudes to their learning and are keen to participate. However, when expectations on them are lower, they don't listen well which can affect what they remember. The school provides a useful and interesting array of after-school and lunch time clubs, such as sewing, choir, various sports and gardening club. Pupils develop their talents and interests successfully. Pupils value challenging leadership opportunities, such as the school council. This helps them to learn about responsibility.

What the school should improve

• Some content and learning activities do not match the curriculum intention. Activities that staff use do not enable pupils to build on what they already know. The school must ensure that staff select the most appropriate activities to enable pupils to build their knowledge over time sequentially.
• In some subjects, teachers do not use assessment effectively to check that pupils understand and remember what they have learned previously. As a result, gaps in pupils' learning or misconceptions are not identified consistently and so go unaddressed. The school needs to ensure that teachers use assessment effectively to inform planning and teaching in all subjects.
• Staff do not expect enough of pupils. This means that pupils do not listen consistently to explanations given by teachers and this can affect how well pupils learn the curriculum. The school must raise expectations further to ensure that pupils listen attentively in lessons, so that pupils achieve more.

Read the full Ofsted report (opens in a new tab)