Telford's Charlton School making progress, say Ofsted inspectors
A Telford school on the road to becoming an academy has made improvements since being placed into special measures last year, education inspectors have revealed.
Charlton School, in Wellington, was placed into special measures following an inspection in May last year.
But a newly published report, following an inspection last month, said leaders and managers were now "taking effective action" towards coming out of special measures.
The school is preparing to move to a new building and the report said that it is hoping to become an academy later this year.
In the report, Ofsted inspector Mel Ford said: "The higher expectations of the quality of teaching and learning are now more securely established across the school and staff at all levels are responding positively.
"This is particularly noticeable at middle leadership level because the interim deputy headteacher who leads on this area has ensured that there are clearly defined expectations and has provided opportunities for middle leaders to develop the skills required."
The inspector said curriculum leaders say that they have greater clarity about their role and responsibilities and now carry out regular monitoring activities to check the quality of teaching and its impact on pupils' progress.
However, the report said they were not frequent enough.
The education watchdog said the quality of teaching had improved but was "not yet consistently good enough".
The report added: "The work done by leaders to tackle issues around planning has successfully refocused teachers on the requirement to plan appropriately for the needs of different groups and abilities.
"In nearly all cases, planning demonstrated that consideration had been given to this.
"However, in the vast majority of lessons, the level of stretch and challenge is defined by providing more work, rather than harder work."
The report said there had been "significant improvement" in the quality of teaching over time in English and instances of "low-level disruption" in lessons were now managed more consistently.
The school's records of pupils' achievement showed evidence that rates of progress were improving, the report said.
