Every Oxfordshire secondary school with an outstanding Ofted rating

Ofsted, also known as the Office for Standards in Education, inspects and awards ratings to state schools in England to judge and monitor the quality of education they are providing.

Ofsted rates schools on a scale from ‘inadequate’, to ‘satisfactory’, ‘good’ and finally ‘outstanding’.

In Oxfordshire, four secondary schools and 24 primary schools have ‘outstanding’ ratings.  

Here is why four secondary schools have been rated as ‘outstanding’:

Bartholomew School

Bartholomew School has held onto an ‘outstanding’ rating since 2009.

The school received overall ‘outstanding’ ratings, but with mostly ‘good’ marks in its 16-19 areas.

The report said the school ‘provides its students with an outstanding education’ and ‘students' personal development and well-being are outstanding’.

It did note: ‘Standards in the sixth form overall are generally above average, although the proportion of students gaining A and B grades at A2 is well above average. There is, however, some variation between subjects both at A2 and AS levels.’

The Cherwell School

The Cherwell School has held onto an ‘outstanding’ rating since 2008.

Th report found the school achieved ‘outstanding’ marks in nearly every area, except ‘The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles’ which was rated ‘good’ and ‘The attendance of learners’ which was ‘satisfactory’.

The inspection found that ‘The quality of teaching is excellent. Teachers have very high expectations and clear objectives for learning. They manage behaviour well, ensuring lessons have an interesting range of tasks, including opportunities to share and extend students' understanding’.

It added: ‘Students are well aware of what to do to improve through regular marking and feedback from teachers and self-assessment. Assessment data is used very well in most lessons to match learning to students' needs. This reflects the school's effective focus on embedding important techniques from the national initiatives to improve teaching and learning even further.’

Didcot Girls' School

Didcot Girls’ School has been rated as ‘outstanding’ since 2015.

The school is rated as ‘outstanding’ in most areas, except ‘Personal development, behaviour and welfare’ and ‘16 to 19 study programmes’ which are both ‘good’.

The report found ‘Pupils achieve very well indeed. GCSE results are considerably above the national average. Pupils make rapid progress in all subjects and year groups’.

It did, however, note ‘Sixth form learners make good, but not yet outstanding, progress. They achieve good results at A level’.

Lord Williams's School

Lord William’s School achieved a ‘good’ rating in 2007 before moving up to ‘outstanding’ in 2011.

The school was marked as ‘outstanding’ and ‘good’ in a number of areas but is overall considered ‘outstanding’.

The report particularly noted the school ‘offers its students an exceptionally broad range of opportunities to develop their talents and interests, through a very well resourced curriculum and the strong commitment of staff to a rich extra-curricular programme’.     

The inspection also found: ‘Students make good progress so that by Year 11 their attainment is high. A large majority continue their studies in the school’s good sixth form provision, from which a high proportion go to their chosen university, and others successfully enter employment or training.’