Telford academy 'not effective' in ending special measures
A failing academy in Telford is not taking effective action towards coming out of special measures, an Ofsted report has revealed.
Too little is being done to tackle the "weak" standards of literacy and numeracy at Telford Park School in Stirchley and the standard of teaching is also not good enough, according to inspectors.
The school, formerly known as Lakeside Academy, was rebranded after being rated inadequate and put into special measures earlier this year. Inspectors, who visited the school last month, said outcomes for pupils who left the academy having completed their examinations in 2015 remained "inadequate".
The trust that runs the school today said improvements had been made, but accepted more needed to be done.
In a new report, inspector Chris Chapman said: "The academy's analysis of provisional results shows that little improvement was seen on the previous year and the government's floor standards, which set the minimum expectation of what pupils' should achieve by the time they leave school, were once again not met. Only 27 per cent of pupils secured five or more A* to C grades including English and mathematics, which, though an incremental rise in the previous year, is very likely to remain significantly below the national average."
He said the low standards reflected the "ineffective" impact of actions taken by former leaders.
According to the report, teaching was not yet up to standard and application of the new marking policy was "inconsistent", but there were signs of improvement. Behaviour had improved rapidly.
The report said that too little was being done to tackle "weak" standards of literacy and numeracy, but plans were in place to address this.
In the report, Mr Chapman said: "The academy is not taking effective action towards the removal of special measures." But he added there had been a 'discernible acceleration in the pace of improvements' since September.
Philip Hamilton, chief executive of the Communities Academies Trust which sponsors the school, said he agreed not enough progress had been made since February's inspection, but was pleased inspectors recognised improvements.
