A Burntwood school has been rated praised for being “a welcoming and caring place” by Ofsted – but has also been told pupils could reach even greater heights.
Inspectors carried out what is known as an “ungraded” visit in June to Chasetown Community School.
Their newly-published findings highlighted positives for the school, but said a graded inspection in future was now being recommended due to evidence being collected that suggested a lower rating might be achieved on such a visit.
The Ofsted report said:
“Chasetown Community School is a welcoming and caring place.
“Leaders have created a safe and nurturing environment – pupils are happy and welcoming to visitors and are keen to talk about the help they get at school.
“All pupils have an education, health and care plan, with pupils’ main areas of need being social, emotional and mental health and autism spectrum disorder.
“Staff are highly skilled in understanding pupils’ specific needs. Pupils are taught different ways to manage their own behaviours and emotions successfully. Leaders understand how behaviours are a way for pupils to communicate their voice. Every child’s voice is listened to attentively by all staff.
“Leaders have high expectations for all pupils. However, the way the curriculum is designed does not allow pupils to achieve as highly as they could in many subjects.
“In the wider curriculum, leaders have not identified the key knowledge and vocabulary they want pupils to learn and in which order. Additionally, the curriculum for pupils moving between Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 is implemented in different ways. This means that pupils learn in a disjointed way.
“Leaders have not identified the key knowledge they want pupils to learn over time in the foundation subjects. They rely on teachers to identify this for their individual pupils – this means pupils do not build knowledge over time in a sequential way. This is hindering pupils’ progress in these subjects.
“Some curriculum leaders do not know how to check the impact of their subject on pupils’ learning well enough. Some are also very new to their roles. They do not yet know how to support whole-school development of their subject.”
Ofsted report
The inspectors praised the school for efforts to deal with behaviour and ensure key skills such as reading were being focused on.
“In some subjects, such as mathematics, reading and personal, social and emotional health, the curriculum is ambitious, and well planned and sequenced.
“Reading is a high priority. There is an effective phonics programme in place and staff teach this consistently well.
“Pupils join the school from other settings at different stages of their education. Their reading is assessed immediately and support is put in place quickly.
“Staff provide many opportunities for pupils to enjoy books and reading throughout the day. This is beginning to improve pupils’ attitudes towards reading.
“Behaviours are managed well during lessons most of the time. Low-level disruptive behaviours are quickly addressed and staff take the time to support pupils in understanding and improving their behaviour.”
Ofsted report
The full report is available on the Ofsted website.