Bilton School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 27 January 2026

Bilton is a friendly and welcoming school where pupils feel safe. Staff care about them and want them to do well. Staff take the time to listen to and encourage pupils. Pupils value this. If bullying does occur, staff take action. Staff notice if pupils are finding school difficult and provide high-quality pastoral care. This helps pupils to overcome many of the obstacles that could hinder their academic and personal growth. Leaders have implemented and refined their approach to managing behaviour. This has raised the bar in terms of expectations, and many pupils have risen to the challenge. Everyone understands the consequences if they make a poor choice. Pupils' successes are celebrated. They receive help to put things right when they go wrong. Pupils are pleased that staff notice their efforts. They wear the lapel badges awarded to them with pride. In-school provision, such as 'refocus' and 'Ignition' make a positive difference to pupils who need extra help to manage their behaviour. Pupils benefit from a broad range of trips, activities and extra-curricular clubs. This makes school an interesting place to be. The school's wider offer expands pupils' view of the world and helps prepare them for life in modern Britain. Pupils can learn about, see and try out a range of new, different and exciting experiences. These range from gardening club to trips to Paris. Pupils' attendance has remained low in recent years. Too many pupils are often absent and, consequently, regularly miss lessons. This creates gaps in pupils' learning and hinders their achievement. While many pupils achieve well, there are inconsistencies in the teaching across the school. These impact on pupils' ability to build their knowledge and skills securely. In particular, the support disadvantaged pupils receive is not consistently effective, and they do not achieve as well as they should.

What the school should improve

• Leaders should ensure that the pupil premium strategy is implemented consistently and evaluated robustly to ensure that support and interventions are timely, appropriate and effective.
• Leaders should ensure that the checking of pupils' knowledge and understanding is used to accurately determine when it is appropriate to revisit previous learning, deepen pupils' thinking or move on to new concepts and ideas.
• Leaders should ensure that agreed approaches to help pupils catch up and keep up following a period of absence are used consistently well and prevent pupils from developing gaps in their knowledge and skills that negatively impact their achievement.
• Leaders should ensure that the strategies and approaches deployed to improve attendance, especially for disadvantaged pupils and pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities, have a sustained impact and reduce levels of persistent absence.
• Leaders should continually review and refine the improvements made to post-16 provision so that students make the progress they should and achieve outcomes that are at least in line with national averages.
• Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that recent improvements are sustained and that there is rapid improvement to address the areas of weakness across the school.

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