Malbank School and Sixth Form in Nantwich has been rated as “Good” overall in the latest Ofsted inspection.
It marks an improvement for the Welsh Row school which was graded as “requires improvement”.
Headteacher John Harrison said he was “delighted” at the latest report, which follows a two-day visit by Ofsted in June.
The report said the school was graded “good” across the five main categories – quality of education; good behaviour and attitudes; personal development; leadership and management; sixth-form provision.
Ofsted said: “Pupils, and students in the sixth form, are happy at this school.
“They feel safe and have warm relationships with staff. They enjoy the calm atmosphere and welcoming ethos of the school.
“Pupils know that staff have high expectations of their behaviour. They behave well in lessons and around the school. Staff deal with any incidents of poor behaviour effectively.
“Pupils are confident that teachers will deal with any rare incidents of bullying effectively.
“Leaders and staff also have high expectations of pupils’ achievement. Teachers support pupils and students effectively in most subjects. Consequently, they achieve well across the curriculum.
“Pupils benefit from a range of opportunities that advance their personal development.”
Ofsted also highlighted areas the school needs to improve.
“In a small number of subjects at key stages 3 and 4, leaders have not identified the knowledge that pupils need to learn clearly enough,” the report adds.
“As a result, in these subjects, teachers do not ensure that pupils build their knowledge step by step. This means that some pupils do not progress through the curriculum as well as they should in these subjects.”
Headteacher Mr Harrison said: “It is quite fitting that we receive this confirmation on our first day back at school – a great opportunity for us to feel good about being at Malbank and proud of how far we have come together as a school as we start another academic year.
“The great thing about the report is that it celebrates areas we felt we had made significant improvements in, and I feel paints a very warm and realistic picture of student experience here.
“More importantly however, it tells us nothing we hadn’t already identified ourselves in terms of areas where we still need to improve.
“Whilst I am proud that Malbank can now hold its head high as comparable to other local schools without the stigma of ‘requires improvement’ being attached to us, the journey is far from complete.
“We have a very detailed plan for improvement this year, some exciting new projects and initiatives to launch and look forward to continuing the upward trajectory of this fantastic school for many years to come.”
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