following their inspection on 30 april – 1 may 2008, ofsted rated the school's overall effectiveness as "good", grade 2 on a four-point scale. the effectiveness of the sixth form was also rated as "good". in their report ofsted said "this is a good and improving school; it is well led and provides students with good standards of education, guidance and care... students make good progress from their starting points to achieve high standards. ... teaching is good overall and sometimes outstanding... but there is more work to do in developing a common approach so that best practice is shared in a systematic way... an effective and hard-working senior leadership team... there is variation in the quality of leadership at some levels; this is evident in the unevenness of students' performance across subjects, particularly at key stage 4 and in the sixth form."