Brentside High School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 29 April 2025

Brentside High School has high expectations for its staff and pupils. Its vision of 'challenge for all, striving for excellence, and developing lifelong learners' is palpable in all aspects of everyday routines. The school's purposeful ethos means that pupils learn successfully and grow and develop as individuals. Typically, pupils enjoy their lessons, behave well, and contribute responsibly to their own learning. Across the different subjects, the work that pupils are set is suitably challenging and helps them build and secure the important knowledge well. As a result, pupils progress confidently through the curriculum and achieve well, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The school promotes pupils' personal development effectively. Pupils enjoy attending extra-curricular activities, noticeably in the sports. They also relish taking on leadership responsibilities, such as being part of the school 'cabinet', as house leaders and as mentors. The sixth form is highly inclusive and provides students with an exceptional quality of provision, both for their academic and their wider development. The ambitious curriculum supports students to achieve excellent outcomes, whether they select A-level qualifications or a vocational pathway. The student-led 'Aspire' scheme helps students to pursue careers such as medicine and dentistry.

What the school should improve

• In some subjects, occasionally teachers do not address key misconceptions or make required adjustments to respond to pupils' needs. As a result, some pupils do not learn as well as they could. The school should ensure that teachers are equipped to identify and address any misconceptions in pupils' knowledge and make effective adjustments to future learning to help pupils consolidate their learning over time, particularly for pupils with SEND.
• Occasionally, the school's support to address pupils' behaviour is not as effective. This means that, at times, some pupils' behaviour does not reflect the school's high expectations. The school should strengthen its approaches to incidents of poor behaviour to ensure that pupils who struggle to follow expectations consistently receive the support and guidance they need to behave well and in a respectful manner.

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