Archived decisions

Appendix 2

OFSTED Findings on Religious Education in Hampshire Secondary Schools in 2004-5

1. Main findings

1.1 Inspection reports from 13 secondary schools were received for the group to monitor, three of these reports were based on short inspections in which specific judgements in terms of the categories below but did make a judgement on the overall provision if it was unsatisfactory. With such a small proportion of schools represented it would be unwise to draw any major conclusions about the health of RE in the secondary sector of Hampshire schools (i.e. 10 schools represents 14% of Hampshire provision). Nevertheless, the table provides interesting comparisons with different cohorts of schools in previous years and, taken together, provide an historical survey of the quality of RE in the majority of Hampshire secondary schools across 5 years.

1.2 In a accordance with the format of inspection reports, reports have been analysed in relation to four main categories:

· Achievement of pupils

· Quality of teaching and learning

· Improvements/progress made since last inspection

· Leadership and management

1.3 The following tables summarise the findings for Key Stage 3 and 4 (with figures for 2000/01, 2001/02, 2002/03 and 2003/4 for the appropriate categories for comparative purposes).

Key Stage 3

Achievement of Pupils

Quality of Teaching and learning

Progress/improvements made since the last inspection (a category that did not feature in reports of previous years)

Leadership and Management (new category)

Key Stage 4

Achievement of pupils

· Figures in brackets apply to non-GCSE achievement

Quality of teaching and learning

Improvements/progress made since last inspection (a category that did not feature in reports prior to 2003/4)

Leadership and Management (new category)

2. Commentary

2.1 The tabulated judgements above do not include findings from the three short inspections except in relation to overall provision being satisfactory or unsatisfactory. Otherwise they are based on inspection findings from 10 schools.

2.2 Findings from the 13 schools inspected (including short inspections) identified unsatisfactory provision in RE at Key Stage 4 in10 schools due to insufficient time being allocated for non GCSE examination students. Three of these schools were also judged as providing unsatisfactory provision at Key Stage 3. This has impacted on the achievement of pupils and improvement since the previous inspection.

2.3 Teaching and learning was judged as good or better in all cases and leadership and management was also found to be good or better in over 70% of inspections

2.4 The findings suggest that two particular issues may be influential: adequate recruitment of RE specialists and school management decisions concerning curriculum provision for all pupils at Key Stage 4 .