LIPA School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 5 June 2025

Pupils in different year groups and with different needs do not benefit from positive experiences at this school. The high proportion of supply or temporary staff in the school has caused pupils uncertainty. Many pupils feel unsettled. Pupils, particularly those in the secondary school and children in the early years, have been adversely affected by recent industrial action. Pupils in key stage 4 are concerned about the impact that this will have on their ability to complete their qualifications. Pupils are frustrated that their education is being disrupted. While some pupils feel happy at school, others expressed that they do not feel safe. They feel scared or threatened by the poor behaviour of other pupils. Pupils stated that the sanctions for inappropriate behaviour are not applied consistently well. As a result, pupils' behaviour does not improve. Attendance procedures do not ensure that pupils are safe when they are absent from school. Pupils have high aspirations for their next steps, particularly those who are interested in pursuing creative and performing arts subjects in the future. However, their ambitions are not being realised. This is because the school's expectations of pupils' achievement are not high enough. Pupils do not achieve well. They are not well prepared for the next steps in their education, training or employment. Although there are some opportunities for pupils to engage in activities to develop their interests and to support the community, only a small number of pupils take up this offer. The opportunities for pupils to take on responsibilities are limited.

What the school should improve

• The trust has not taken effective action to stabilise the recent turbulence in the leadership and wider staffing at the school. Consequently, leaders and staff are stretched beyond capacity. This has led to high staff absence and a lack of continuity for pupils. Pupils and staff have suffered as a result. The trust must take urgent action to stabilise the staffing at the school and provide much needed capacity at leadership level so that all aspects of the school's provision improve rapidly.
• The roles and responsibilities of those responsible for governance lack definition. The trust has not held the school to account for the decline in the quality of education that pupils receive. As a result, children in the early years and pupils across the rest of the school, including those with SEND and disadvantaged pupils, do not achieve well. The trust must ensure that it gains an accurate insight into the school's effectiveness so that it can provide the necessary support and challenge to aid its improvement.
• Safeguarding arrangements are not effective. The systems to check pupils' safety and well-being when they are absent from school are not followed as set out in the school's policy. This means that the school does not have oversight of where these pupils are, which puts them at risk of harm. The trust must take immediate action to ensure that there is capacity in the attendance team to follow the attendance policies and keep pupils safe.
• The curriculum across the school lacks ambition and does not prepare pupils sufficiently well for each stage of their education. In the early years, children do not build the foundations that they need to be successful in Year 1. The school must ensure that it designs and implements a suitably coherent and ambitious curriculum, including in the early years, so that children and pupils make a strong start to their education.
• The activities that staff design to teach the curriculum do not help pupils to develop sufficient depth of knowledge about the subjects that they study. This prevents different groups of pupils from achieving well. The school must equip staff to deliver the curriculum successfully so that pupils can build on what they know and deepen their learning over time.
• The school has not ensured that staff adapt teaching to meet the needs of pupils with SEND. As a result, these pupils become disengaged and do not achieve as well as they should. The school should ensure that staff are equipped with suitable strategies to support pupils with SEND so that these pupils learn all that they should.
• Staff do not routinely rectify gaps and misconceptions in pupils' knowledge. They lack clarity about how to make checks on what pupils remember. This means that pupils move on to new learning before they are ready. Pupils are not prepared sufficiently well for each year or stage of their education. The school should ensure that staff address pupils' errors and misunderstandings promptly so that pupils build their knowledge securely.
• The school has not established consistently high expectations of pupils' behaviour. In lessons and around the school, the poor behaviour of some pupils, at times, goes unnoticed and unchallenged by staff. This hinders the learning of others and makes pupils feel unsafe. The school should clarify the expectations that it has about pupils' behaviour and ensure that staff receive the support that they need to address any incidents. This is to make sure that pupils are safe and can learn in a positive environment.
• The programme to support pupils' personal development is ineffective. It is not coherent or valued by many pupils. As a result, some groups of pupils do not understand how to treat each other with respect. The school must ensure that the programme to support pupils' personal development is fit for purpose and supports pupils to develop a clear understanding of how to treat each other in modern Britain. HMCI strongly recommends that the school does not seek to appoint early career teachers. The position regarding the appointment of early career teachers will be considered again during any monitoring inspection we carry out.

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