A message from The Headteacher - Mr Rod Bell 

It's Official - The Corsham School is a ‘Good’ School where “pupils learn well in a secure, friendly and supportive setting.” Ofsted 2019

Since I arrived at The Corsham School just over two and a half years ago, I have been delighted with the progress we have made in our commitment to continually improve all aspects of the quality of educational experience for our pupils in pursuit of our vision ‘To Provide educational excellence at the heart of a vibrant community which equips students to thrive in a highly competitive world.’ 

The staff work tirelessly to continually improve the many aspects of the quality of education that our pupils experience, having paid particular attention to all the improvements identified by Ofsted in their March 2017 Report, and it has been particularly gratifying leading these improvements and seeing the mind-set of our pupils change so that they, like the staff, now all have higher aspirations and expectations of themselves with the belief that they can be hugely successful in their future in whatever they put their mind to. This focus on supporting all pupils to be the very best they can be an all aspects of their personal and academic life, along with a school culture of being proud of one’s successes, is becoming embedded here.

“Leaders have high expectations for pupils. They want all pupils to do their best and they make this message very clear.” Ofsted 2019

The new look September 2019 Report, which follows our 11-12th September two day Ofsted inspection of the school under as a new and revised Ofsted Education Inspection Framework that came into play on 1st September, has now been published.  Over the two days, five Inspectors visited the school where they surveyed all pupils, staff and parents for their views on the school, observed lessons and lunchtime/break time activities, held meetings with school leaders, staff, pupils and governors, with the feedback that informed their final overwhelmingly positive judgements about our school.

Under the new Inspection Framework, the final published written report is shorter and less detailed as it was under the previous Inspection Framework and it also doesn’t include summary findings under each of the Inspection Category Gradings.  Instead, under the new framework, the report is a much more succinct general written summary with the full and more detailed feedback of the Inspection findings, which would have been part of the report under the previous framework, verbally fed back to Governors and the Senior Leadership Team after the conclusion of the Inspection.

The judgements within this report are ones that The Corsham School deserves to be rightly proud of, reflecting very well on its pupils and staff and I hope you are as proud as every one of us that are part of this wonderful school.  I encourage you it read it when you get a chance. (The full report is attached at the top of the page.)

The Corsham School has been judged as an overall ‘Good’ school and achieved ‘Good’ ratings for all five of the new inspection framework categories:

September 2019:           

Overall effectiveness:	Good
The Quality of Education:	Good
Behaviour and Attitudes:	Good
Personal Development:	Good
Leadership and Management:	Good
Sixth Form Provision:	Good

It is particularly pleasing that all of the strengths of the school identified in the March 2017 Report have been maintained and/or strengthened further and there are no longer any categories identified as ‘Requires Improvement’.  It is extremely satisfying to know that the changes we are bringing about to improve the quality of education for our pupils have the seal of approval from Ofsted.

In addition to the pleasing overall ‘Good’ judgements, some of the many highlights from the Ofsted Inspection feedback/report include:

• “Leaders have high expectations for pupils. They want all pupils to do their best and they make this message very clear.”
• “Leaders want pupils to excel beyond their lessons.”
• “Leaders want as many pupils as possible to succeed in the English Baccalaureate.”
• “The trustees of the multi-academy trust (MAT) have a clear vision for the school.”
• “Teaching takes place in well-equipped rooms with specialist teachers.”
• “Staff know pupils well and make sure that they feel comfortable and cared for.”
• “Pupils achieve well in their GCSEs and A levels.”
• “Each year, pupils are gaining better results.”
• “When pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) need extra help, staff provide this efficiently.”
• “Pupils behave well in and out of lessons.”
• “Pupils’ good behaviour makes a strong contribution to their ability to learn.”
• “Pupils are respectful of each other.”
• “Pupils learn well in a secure, friendly and supportive setting.”
• “Pupils show tolerance to others and know that bullying is not allowed. When it does happen, staff deal with it swiftly.”
• “Pupils learn a rich and broad curriculum from Year 7 onward.”
• “Pupils develop knowledge well in the core subjects of English, mathematics and science.”
• “Pupils are given good advice about which GCSE subjects to choose.”
• “Pupils go on to their new destinations with confidence when they leave.”
• “Pupils feel safe and are safe.”
•  “The arrangements for safeguarding are effective” where “staff are vigilant in looking for any signs that a pupil may be vulnerable...informing the safeguarding leaders…who respond quickly and efficiently.”

It was extremely heart-warming to receive the many overwhelmingly positive good luck emails Parents and Carers sent to me and my staff during the inspection.  The unwavering support of Parents and Carers is an essential ingredient of pupil and school success and something we are particularly grateful for.  Ofsted were very complimentary about their analysis of the Parent Survey, with some of the pleasing headline results below:

• 97% of Parents surveyed agree/strongly agree with ‘My child is happy at this school.’
• 98% of Parents surveyed agree/strongly agree with ‘My child feels safe at this school.’
• 93% of Parents surveyed agree/strongly agree that ‘The school has high expectations of my child.’
• 95% of Parents surveyed agree/strongly agree with ‘My child does well at this school.’
• 98% of Parents surveyed agree/strongly agree that ‘There is a good range of subjects available to my child at this school.’
• 94% of Parents surveyed agree/strongly agree with ‘My child can take part in clubs and activities at this school.’
• 96% of Parents surveyed ‘Would recommend this school to another parent.’

We are already working on addressing the small number of areas the Ofsted report identified for improvement and we will continue to build on the many strengths they identified which reflect so well on the sustained hard work of our staff and students. 

Parents and Carers in Corsham and the surrounding villages can again see the impact of the positive changes and continuous improvement taking place here at The Corsham School.

Rod Bell - Headteacher

Ofsted Parent View, gives parents the opportunity to tell Ofsted what they think about us and how we are doing. Please click on the link here.