Inspection Summary Report - Drumglass High School

Drumglass High School

DE Ref No 521-0231

Inspection Summary Report - February 2026

The school’s vision of a community where everyone learns together, grows together and succeeds together, supported by the values of Determination, Hope and Success, promotes the holistic development of the pupils, with an emphasis on collaboration, inclusion and success for all.
The pupils are friendly, fun-loving and confident; they are supported to live out the school’s values, participate in aspects of decision making that are important to them, and contribute to making their school a kind and hopeful community of learning.
The school development planning process, informed by a solid understanding of the school’s context and its richly diverse community, is underpinned by robust and honest self-evaluation and reflection with the whole school community.
Planning, teaching and assessment for successful learning was mostly effective, with pupils engaging enthusiastically in active and engaging learning; departmental planning requires more detail to include the successful adaptive strategies and reflect the high-quality resources and effective practice observed.
Ongoing curriculum review has seen the introduction of a range of key stage 4 pathways better aligned to the pupils’ abilities, interests and aspirations; the varied extra- and co-curricular provision supports well the growth and development of the pupils and enables them to develop new skills.
The pupils respond positively to the creative range of initiatives, interventions and ongoing support to help them overcome barriers to learning, including to address their emotional health and well-being needs.
The preventative curriculum addresses relevant and contemporary issues, however, the current delivery model makes it difficult to monitor and evaluate progression and limits depth and richness in learning; the school is reviewing the content and delivery of the preventative curriculum to ensure greater coherence.
The pupils enrolled in the specialist provision learn in a calm and attractive environment and benefit from an inclusive curriculum which blends personalised learning and support in the specialist classes with regular opportunities to learn and socialise with their peers in the mainstream classes.
The school has prioritised the further improvement of the outcomes at GCSE; there is a strong focus on literacy and numeracy across the school and over the past three years, in GCSE English and GCSE mathematics, the majority of pupils (68% and 69% respectively) attained grades A* to C.
Staff professional learning is aligned well to school improvement; the staff benefit from area learning community conferences, whole-school sessions, drop-in workshops, mentoring, learning walks and the sharing of wider research on effective pedagogy.
Meaningful collaborative networks support the holistic development of the pupils, enhance the provision, support staff professional learning and help the school achieve its vision.
At the time of the inspection, the evidence provided by the school demonstrates that the arrangements for child protection align to the current statutory guidance.

Next steps

The pupils in Drumglass High School are learning, growing and succeeding together in a vibrant and diverse community of learning that supports their holistic development. The staff are taking forward appropriate areas for development informed by the pupils’ needs and aligned to the school’s vision and values of Determination, Hope and Success.

As set out in the school development plan, the next steps for Drumglass High School are to take forward the following areas for action:

ensure greater coherence in the content and delivery of the preventative curriculum; and
improve further the outcomes the pupils attain at GCSE.

The District Inspector will monitor the school’s progress in addressing the areas for action, as part of ETI’s routine monitoring processes.