OFSTED DECIDES
AFTER A NO-NOTICE INSPECTION:

AN OUTSTANDING SCHOOL

St Peter's High School
Gloucester

An Outstanding Roman Catholic Voluntary Aided School

OfSTED inspected the school in February 2009. This inspection was carried out without any notice having been given to the school.

St Peter's is an outstanding school. It is a school with ambition and drive.

Two of the most striking things about the school are students' exemplary behaviour in lessons and their excellent attitudes to learning.

St Peter's students are mature, friendly and polite.

The headteacher and his leadership team believe that students' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is the school's core purpose and this is a real strength of the school's work. Students feel very safe in school; they are very well cared for. St Peter's does much to promote community cohesion.

The teaching of key subject knowledge and understanding is rigorous and often inspiring. Students' learning skills are well developed. GCSE examination results are consistently above average. Students from all backgrounds and of all abilities do well. There is remarkably high provision in English and mathematics.

The inspection was carried out under a new procedure which is scrupulous and detailed. That the school should - for the third time running under the OfSTED regime - be placed in the highest category endorses its reliable and thorough excellence. Few schools can match this record; none can surpass it.

The success testifies to the hard work, dedication and commitment of the school's staff - all its staff, not just the teachers, to the commitment of its parents and to the energy and determination of its students. The school reflects in practice the Catholic Christian ethos which it proclaims.

The full report can be read here.