St Alban's Catholic High School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 23 April 2025

Pupils enjoy coming to this welcoming and inclusive school. They say that school is 'as near perfect as it could be'. Their behaviour strongly reflects the school's high expectations of 'learning, respecting, and caring'. Pupils behave extremely well at all times. They show deep engagement in their learning and value the support of staff. Pupils achieve well in their learning. The school provides pupils with a variety of opportunities which enrich their learning. For example, pupils visit the theatre, attend lectures at universities and work with drones as part of workshops about ecology. Pupils participate in local signing festivals and take part in the 'linguistics Olympiad'. These activities enhance their talents and interests. Pupils benefit from a wide range of extra-curricular activities, including sports clubs, problem-solving club and 'alive in faith'. These activities are well attended. Pupils set up and lead their own clubs for their peers to enjoy, such as the 'nerd' club. Pupils have a wealth of purposeful leadership opportunities. These include school councillors, prefects, sports leaders and the interdenominational chaplaincy team. The prefects chair school council meetings and the chaplaincy team completes fundraising activities. These opportunities encourage pupils to develop as confident and responsible leaders of the future.

What the school should improve

• Occasionally, in some subjects, teaching does not build well on some pupils' prior knowledge. This affects how well some groups of pupils learn the intended curriculum. It sometimes affects how deeply pupils learn subject-specific knowledge. Where this is the case, the school should ensure that learning activities build well on pupils' prior knowledge and that pupils develop a strong and deep body of knowledge in these subjects.

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