Lift Newlands

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 13 March 2023

Pupils are happy and safe in the school's warm and caring community. Adults understand their pupils' needs and build working relationships grounded in trust. All adults have high expectations and ambitions for pupils. They want all pupils to do well throughout their education and in preparation for adulthood. Pupils appreciate how staff have helped them to understand their own behaviour and well-being. The staff know the pupils well. They identify when pupils may need more input or support to be ready for learning. This ensures that pupils' behaviour is mostly calm and orderly. The school provides a wide range of opportunities to nurture and develop pupils' confidence and resilience. These include musical performances and inter-school rugby tournaments. Pupils are taught to be respectful of everybody regardless of differences. Incidences of bullying are rare and are dealt with swiftly by staff should they occur. Parents and carers are positive about the school and the education that their children receive here. One parent typically commented, 'I cannot praise the staff enough. Their continuing support to both me and my son is without doubt above and beyond their job description.'

What the school should improve

• Leaders have not made sure that all staff have the support they need to lead and teach subjects where they do not have subject-specialist expertise. In a few subjects, curriculum thinking does not clearly identify the component knowledge that pupils need to know and remember. Where teachers are teaching beyond their subject expertise, the teaching of key concepts is not as routinely clear. This hinders pupils' learning where this is the case. Leaders should provide support for curriculum leaders and for teaching staff who are working outside of their subject specialism, to enable them to identify and teach the component knowledge and skills that pupils need to know.

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