Formerly inadequate Merseyside school receives updated Ofsted rating, but it's still not good news

Despite the progress seen, Progress Schools in Hamilton Square was told it still “requires improvement” overall. The school was inspected in July this year and was found to be good in the behaviour and attitudes as well as the personal development of its pupils. However areas of its leadership and management as well as the quality of education still “requires improvement.”

The inspection also found the school met the standards required by independent providers. The Birkenhead school is mainly made up of pupils who have previously had a bad experience in education, many of them with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Inspectors said the school “offers something different” with positive relationships between staff and pupils with the atmosphere described as “typically calm and harmonious.” While the school had high expectations for its pupils, Ofsted did say the curriculum was underdeveloped and some staff lacked expertise in their subjects.

The Ofsted report said: “As a result, there is much variability in how well they explain difficult concepts, identify and address misconceptions and deepen pupils’ learning in each subject.”

The school has taken action on that front and was praised for its ambitious curriculum. Overall inspectors said some parts of the school “have improved greatly” but many of these changes were very recent so it was too early to see any impact.

The school was praised for how it set its pupils up for life after school. In other areas, the school was found to be supporting its SEND pupils and tackling bad pupil behaviour well, adding: “This helps them to develop strategies that enable them to engage increasingly successfully with their education.”

The report said: “Although work to improve the quality of education has been slow, recently appointed leaders understand what needs to be done and have begun to implement change. Staff spoke particularly favourably of recent changes at the school.

“They appreciate the clarity that they now have about their roles and the strengthening of the school’s systems, for example to manage behaviour. These changes have helped to improve staff’s wellbeing and reduce their workload.”