St Michael's CofE High School

St Michael’s Church of England High School is a significantly oversubscribed 11-16 mixed comprehensive secondary school, based in Rowley Regis, Sandwell.  We are a local authority, voluntary aided (VA) school and we educate over 1,200 students. As a VA school, the governing board is integral to ensuring continuous improvement for all staff and students; their mission is to:

To provide effective challenge, rigour and strategic support to St Michael’s to live the Christian Vision, ensuring all students and staff are able to flourish and achieve their full potential.

Highly effective governance and leadership ensure the continuity of a clear and ambitious vision for providing high quality, inclusive education for all, encompassed within our Christian vision and values. We are proud that the Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools judged St Michael's to be an excellent school. At St Michael's, we aim to show love, care and kindness to all in our community. We value what we have and share with others, and we aim to enable everyone to achieve their full potential.

In 2023, Ofsted again judged our school to be Good, particularly at a time when the benchmark for ‘Good’ is at the highest level it has ever been. Ofsted recognised a plethora of strengths, including our high expectations, Christian ethos, culture of mutual respect, provision for pupils’ wider personal development, PSCE, and prioritisation of reading strategies to ensure pupils catch-up and safeguarding provision. At St Michael’s, the impact of the quality of education is underpinned by an ambitious and effectively structured curriculum. Ofsted recognised that lessons are structured effectively. Teachers model tasks skilfully, and they are adept in the way they implement the curriculum. Additionally, teachers make good use of different forms of assessment to check what pupils know and understand. As a result, teachers quickly spot where pupils may need additional help.

St Michael’s has been on a transformational journey; our key performance indicators demonstrated that our inclining performance trajectory continued through 2020 and 2021 with unvalidated teacher assessed grades (TAGs) and centre assessed grades (CAGs). In 2022, our progress 8 score of +0.55 is in the top 10% of all secondary schools nationally. In particular, disadvantaged students, students with special educational needs and children looked after significantly outperform both similar students nationally as well as their national comparator. Our success continued in 2023, with our progress 8 score of +0.41, maintaining our standing within the top 20% of all secondary schools nationally.

We enjoy working and learning in a beautiful building with state-of-the-art facilities, including three multi­ use games areas; sports fields; a sports hall; a gym; a dance studio; a drama theatre; a spacious Learning Resource Centre; design and technology rooms; computer suites; food and textiles facilities and science laboratories. Classrooms and corridors are light and spacious, and at the heart of the school is our beautiful chapel: a peaceful space for prayer and reflection.

St Michael's is recognised by Ofsted for our exceptional provision in behaviour, attitudes and personal development. In 2023, we achieved the King’s Award for voluntary service and in 2022, we achieved the gold standard Mental Health in Schools Award from The Carnegie Centre of Excellence. We have an award-winning Student Voice programme, where children work tirelessly for the benefit of others: highlighting the problems faced by 21st Century children; liaising with local agencies to tackle environmental and social issues; supporting our local and global community and raising money for charity (over £70,000 to date). Our Junior Leadership Team and Wellbeing Champions are pioneers within school; through collaborative working partnerships, they help inform strategies and help shape curriculum design.

St Michael’s are proud to serve our local community and we are relentless in our mission to raise aspirations, both of the students and their parents/carers. By applying to St Michael’s, you could be part of a high performing team, which creates independent, skilled, problem-solving learners who are well-prepared for the next stage in their educational or vocational journeys.