Shelley College celebrates highly complimentary OFSTED report!

Staff and students at Shelley College are celebrating a very positive report following their recent OFSTED inspection. Head Teacher, John McNally, said:

"It truly is very positive and one of the strongest reports you will see for a secondary school under the new inspection framework.

"I am delighted the report recognises the students’ exemplary behaviour. I have never seen such a positive statement about students in any OFTSED report but it is thoroughly well deserved. The students do behave exceptionally well every day and their contributions make Shelley College such a special place. The inspectors also highlighted the outstanding pastoral care the students receive which, together with our excellent positive behaviour system and parental support, creates the right environment for them to "achieve exceptionally well".

"I think we performed magnificently in terms of the prime judgments relating to pupil outcomes, with six out of seven deemed outstanding.

"The overall headline is that we are a good school with many outstanding features. This is a similar judgment to the previous inspection in 2006 but marks substantial progress under what is widely recognised to be a much more demanding inspection regime. Our curriculum was judged to be good but was close to outstanding and this one alteration would have led to an overall outstanding for the whole report.

"I am also pleased the inspectors confirmed we had already identified the areas we need to improve in order to become outstanding. Plans to further improve assessment and develop one or two aspects of our curriculum will be implemented in September and I can assure you we will keep looking for ways to improve the school further.

"The Sixth Form also received lots of praise and inspectors recognised the improvements that have led to the college achieving the best value-added performance in Kirklees last year."

Readers may be interested to know that Shelley College is a 13-19 comprehensive school that takes applications for students to come in Years 9 and 12. The OFSTED report recognised that achievement is very high (the highest possible grade) and that all areas of the school are at least good, with many outstanding.

J McNally 4/3/10

To read our full Ofsted report please click here.
Please read this letter from the headteacher.