Castle School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 3 June 2025

Castle School has created a warm and welcoming learning environment, where pupils thrive. The school is highly ambitious for all its pupils. As a result, pupils believe they can do anything they set their mind to. They consequently work hard in their lessons and make good progress from their individual starting points. Parents appreciate that staff know how best to support their child, both academically and pastorally. Pupils' special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are well understood and supported. Staff actively model how they want pupils to behave. Tolerance and respect underpin all these interactions. Pupils respond well to this approach and, as a result, their behaviour is exemplary. On the rare occasions that pupils get upset, they quickly bounce back with the help of the schools' highly effective pastoral team. The schools' personal development programme is outstanding. Pupils really enjoy learning in their community. Through this work, they develop a greater understanding of the opportunities and risks posed by life in modern Britain. The 'Castlefest' music festival is a highlight of the school year for pupils and parents. This helps pupils build their resilience to being in large social settings. Sixth-form students are particularly well prepared for their next steps into education and/or training. They greatly benefit from weekly college visits.

What the school should improve

• In key stage 2 and key stage 3, the component knowledge of the writing curriculum does not build on pupils' previous learning in a clear, sequential way. This limits pupils' ability to build their knowledge and skills over time and to develop their writing stamina and fluency. Leaders should ensure that their writing curriculum is well sequenced across the whole school and that teachers have the expertise to implement this well, so that all pupils achieve well.
• Some subject leadership does not have sufficient oversight of curriculum implementation to provide the right support for staff and strengthen pedagogy, where needed. As a result, in a few subjects some pupils do not learn as well as they could. The school should ensure that subject leadership has effective oversight of curriculum implementation and uses this knowledge to secure continued improvements.

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