Josie Hinton A secondary school for girls in Marylebone has been praised for its outstanding ability to promote equality among pupils by Ofsted. St Marylebone CE in Marylebone High Street, which accepts pupils from a wide range of backgrounds, integrates

Josie Hinton

A secondary school for girls in Marylebone has been praised for its outstanding ability to promote equality among pupils by Ofsted.

St Marylebone CE in Marylebone High Street, which accepts pupils from a wide range of backgrounds, integrates all students into its life and work, inspector David Muir said.

Teachers show ability in identifying early those children who were at risk of being disaffected and enabling them to progress.

The school's effective teaching and teachers' use of external partnerships, such as refugee services, was also noted.

"Each student is seen as a valuable contributor and the school celebrates their participation in a way which raises the self-esteem and confidence of all pupils, including those from very unsettled backgrounds," said Mr Muir.

"Students can start again with a clean slate if they have slipped off the rails and have a clear understanding of acceptable boundaries.

"Peer mentoring and coaching enables older students to support the ones who are going through similar difficulties to the ones they have overcome themselves.

"The overall ethos of the school promotes an outstanding tolerance and understanding of the diversity of cultures."

Deputy headteacher John Hunter said: "The visit was very positive.

"The inspector looked at the work we were doing to personalise learning for the Every Child Matters framework.

"He discussed how we are picking up pupils with particular strengths as well as looking at pupils with particular challenges, such as refugees."

The only area for development is the need to monitor different groups of students so trends in their performance can be identified.

But Mr Hunter said: "We had a bit of a debate with him about his insistence that we look at pupils in groups defined by factors such as their ethnicity and gender.

"We approach things by looking at pupils individually because they are individuals.

"You can't look at a group of five Bangladeshi girls and think they are all going to have the same issues - it doesn't work like that.