Our Lady's Catholic College

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 26 March 2024

Pupils value the sense of community and friendship that they find at Our Lady's Catholic College. They enjoy the calm and purposeful atmosphere that permeates the school site. Pupils and staff recognise the considerable improvements to the school that have taken place over the last few years. Pupils understand the high expectations that staff have for their behaviour and achievement. They fully engage in learning, and they display positive attitudes towards their education. Students in the sixth form achieve well and go on to a range of appropriately ambitious destinations. However, some pupils in key stages 3 and 4 do not achieve as well as they should. This is because they have not benefited fully from the school's newly refined curriculum. Pupils are happy at school. They appreciate the wide range of experiences on offer to develop their understanding of equality and diversity. For example, pupils are provided with rich opportunities to learn from people of different faiths and to understand the religious festivals that their peers take part in. The school encourages pupils to 'aspire not to have more but to be more'. Pupils live out this philosophy by participating in a variety of activities to raise money for local, national and international charities. For example, pupils are currently fundraising to support their Uganda project.

What the school should improve

• Some teachers do not select the most appropriate activities to help pupils to develop their subject knowledge. This hinders some pupils, including pupils with SEND, from deepening and applying their knowledge in different contexts. It also makes it more difficult for teachers to identify pupils' misconceptions. The school should ensure that teachers are suitably equipped to design learning that supports pupils to learn the knowledge defined in the curriculum securely.
• In some subjects the school has not ensured that pupils in key stage 4 are benefiting sufficiently well from the new curriculum. This is hindering these pupils from developing long-term understanding and retaining the knowledge necessary for subsequent learning. The school should ensure that key stage 4 pupils are well equipped with the knowledge that they need to support them to progress successfully onto their next steps in education and training.
• The strategies that the school uses to help foster pupils' enjoyment of reading are not as effective as they could be. Some pupils do not enjoy reading and they do not read widely or often. The school should ensure that effective strategies are in place to help promote a love of reading across all key stages.

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