Ofsted in new criticism of Telford school in special measures
Ofsted inspectors have condemned standards of behaviour at an under-fire specialist school in Telford.
Mount Gilbert School in Dawley, which caters for children with specialist education needs, is making insufficient progress towards the removal of special measures, the inspectors have ruled.
They say a large number of pupils are persistently absent and incidents of aggression and damage to buildings remain frequent.
The report says that during the last school year, 39 out of 42 students had at least one fixed-term exclusion and over 450 days of school were lost to exclusion over the year.
It also identifies that some students leave class in order to smoke and others do so openly in front of staff.
Inspectors found that many students are openly defiant and used abusive or foul language to staff.
The inspection on November 4 and 5 was the second monitoring inspection since the school became subject to special measures following a visit by inspectors in March.
The school teaches pupils with behavioural, social and emotional difficulties and conditions such as autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD).
The report says: "When students are in school, some refuse to stay in lessons and will sometimes go in and out of other classes, disrupting learning for other students.
"Staff consistently remind students not to swear but this has only short-term, if any, impact.
"Students regularly leave the school site, especially at break times, even though this is against the school rules."
