Cambian Tyldesley School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 28 January 2025

The school provides a safe, calm place, where pupils feel they can be themselves. Pupils join the school after having tricky prior experiences in education. Many of them have spent significant time outside of school. Staff form warm and supportive relationships with pupils. They spend time to get to understand pupils, who all have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), individual learning and behaviour needs. This helps them to feel valued. Typically, in school, they behave positively. Staff help pupils to manage their own behaviour increasingly well. The proprietor and school are ambitious for pupils. They want pupils to achieve the most that they can. In many areas of its work, the school is successful. However, other aspects of the school's ambition for pupils' achievement are not fully realised. There is more work to do to ensure that pupils achieve greater success across the curriculum. The school offers some pupils a vocational pathway which suits their interests and wishes. This includes horse riding, vehicle mechanics or hair and beauty. This adds value to their educational experiences, helping pupils to think about what they might want to do as a future career.

What the school should improve

• In some subjects, the school has not identified clearly enough what the important knowledge is that pupils should learn. This means that it is difficult for teachers to know what pupils should be learning at different stages of the curriculum. Pupils struggle to build up their knowledge over time. The school should ensure that it identifies key knowledge precisely in these subjects.
• In some subjects, including phonics, staff do not have the necessary subject- specific or pedagogical knowledge. This means that they find it more difficult to impart knowledge to pupils or to deliver the curriculum effectively. The school should ensure that staff receive effective professional development in these areas so that they can deliver the curriculum effectively.
• In some subjects, the checks that teachers make on pupils' learning are not as effective as they could be. This limits their ability to know what pupils have remembered from their prior learning or where any gaps in pupils' learning remain. The school should ensure that teachers use assessment opportunities more effectively, so that pupils know more and can do more over time.
• A small group of pupils are not in school as often as they need to be. This limits their chance to access the curriculum and learn new things. The school should ensure that these pupils attend school when they can and minimise how often they miss out on important learning.

Read the full Ofsted report (opens in a new tab)