La Sainte Union Catholic Secondary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 3 December 2024

The school's values of service, dignity, respect, academia, cooperation and excellence are embedded in the life of La Sainte Union. Pupils demonstrate kindness towards each other. Bullying is rare, and typically staff are effective in dealing with incidents if they occur. Pupils are kept safe and taught how to stay safe. Pupils benefit from the wide extra-curricular offer. They develop their interests through the range of clubs available, including football, drama and philosophy. Pupils enhance their leadership skills through a range of roles, for example as school council representatives or as reading mentors. Students in the sixth form read with pupils in Year 7 during tutor times, which helps to support their transition into the school. The school has high expectations of pupils' achievement. Pupils are keen to do well, and they are ambitious for their futures. Their successes are reflected in the outcomes they achieve at the end of Year 11. Across the school, pupils and students in the sixth form typically learn well.

What the school should improve

• At times, teaching adaptations are not as effective as they could be. This means that pupils, including those with SEND, are not developing their knowledge as well as they might. The school should ensure that staff are suitably trained to adapt their teaching to support pupils, and students in the sixth form, to develop their independence and fluency across subjects.
• Recently introduced systems for managing behaviour are not consistently applied, particularly during informal times. This means the conduct of some pupils is not as positive. Additionally, some pupils, including those with SEND and some who are new to the school, are unclear how behaviour issues will be followed up. The school should ensure that expectations are clearly communicated to staff and pupils, and that staff have the support that they need to apply the school's agreed approaches consistently well.
• At times, the school and governors do not have sufficient oversight of whether newer policies are having the intended impact. This means that the vision is not fully translated into practice because goals are not understood by all stakeholders and coherently coordinated. The school should continue to review and refine policies to ensure that they are effective for pupils, including those with SEND and who are disadvantaged.

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