Granta School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 24 April 2024

Pupils enjoy spending time together and include everyone in their play or social time. Pupils enthusiastically talk or sign about who their friends are and what they like doing together. They enjoy school. Parents agree with this, many describe how their child has thrived here. Pupils' well-being is held in the highest importance. Pupils are safe and well looked after. Relationships between staff and pupils are positive. Many staff changes and absences have meant that improvements in the quality of education have not happened quickly enough. As a result, pupils have not been taught as well as they should have been. Some pupils are not engaged in learning too much of the time. This means that those pupils have not learned as well as they should. Pupils benefit from a wide-ranging curriculum, enjoying regular swimming and cookery. They are prepared well to be as independent as possible as they move towards adult life. Many pupils leave with qualifications that help them gain college placements. For those with more complex needs, teaching enables pupils to learn clear communication skills.

What the school should improve

• The curriculum does not contain enough guidance for teachers on what they should teach and when. This means that pupils do not necessarily learn all of what they need or have different experiences over time. The school needs to ensure that the work on developing a complete, quality curriculum is completed and implemented.
• The quality of teaching about books and stories varies throughout the school. This means that not all pupils have the same opportunities to be enthused by stories or rhyme. The school needs to ensure that staff have the expertise and resources to teach these aspects of the curriculum well.
• Some staff are not as experienced and/or skilled as others in working with pupils with SEND. As a result, some pupils are spending too much time not engaged with learning or activities. The school needs to ensure that staff have appropriate training, and can use this, to re-engage pupils.
• There has not been enough recent leadership capacity to facilitate rapid school improvement. This means that the quality of education has not improved as fast as it needs to. The school needs to ensure that there is sufficient leadership capacity to improve the school further.

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