The Fountains High School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 7 December 2022

Staff go the extra mile to care for pupils. Pupils are happy and enjoy coming to school. Relationships between staff and pupils are excellent. A comment made by one student echoed the views of many others: 'Teachers at this school listen to you and respect you.' Pupils are not worried about bullying. If it happens, leaders deal with it quickly and effectively. Staff support pupils to manage their emotions and behaviour. Pupils use a common language from the 'zones of regulation' to describe how they are feeling. This helps staff to identify the best ways to support them. If pupils become upset, staff are quick to resettle them back to their learning. Consequently, lessons usually run smoothly. Leaders have high expectations for pupils and what they can achieve. Pupils respond well to these expectations. All pupils who left the school last year and in previous years went on to education, employment or training. Pupils value the many activities the school provides for them. This includes after- school clubs in dance and origami, residential trips and sailing. Sixth-form students are actively involved in the local community. They run a coffee bean café and a vocational horticultural enterprise project called The Potting Shed. Both are well supported by local people.

What the school should improve

• Not all subjects are coherently planned and sequenced. This means that pupils do not do as well as they could in some subjects. Leaders should ensure that the curriculum in all subjects is well planned and implemented so that pupils develop the knowledge and skills they need to prepare them for their next steps.
• Across the senior leadership team, some responsibilities and lines of accountability are not as clear as they might be. This means that some leaders' checks on their actions to improve the school are not suitably evaluative. This limits their understanding of what is working well and what could be improved further. Trustees should ensure that leaders' responsibilities, and lines of accountability, are more clearly defined. They should do this so that leaders' checks on their work to improve the school provide more helpful information.
• Governors do not have a clear understanding of some of the school's areas for development. This limits their ability to think and act with well-informed strategic purpose. Trustees should continue to support governors to ensure that they have the appropriate knowledge and skills to successfully hold leaders to account for their actions.

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