SMS Changing Lives School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 10 June 2025

Staff at SMS Changing Lives are focused on supporting pupils to re-engage with education. Pupils have the support that they need to develop trusting and positive relationships with their peers and others who they encounter. Typically, pupils attend school more than previously. They enjoy coming to school and being a part of this small school community. Pupils enjoy the opportunity to have wider experiences, such as visiting theatres to watch performances of texts they study in class. The school has set out a broad curriculum offer, which includes national curriculum subjects and vocational courses. This reflects the school's high expectations for pupils' achievement. In some instances, the school implements these subject curriculums successfully. Typically, pupils achieve well in these subjects. However, some of the curriculums are not delivered as successfully. This impedes how well some pupils achieve across the curriculum. Pupils typically behave well. Underpinning the school's approach to supporting pupils' behaviour is developing positive relationships with them. This approach is effective. Staff and pupils have mutual respect. Pupils respond well to the encouragement and boundaries which staff put into place for them.

What the school should improve

• The school does not ensure that effective checks are made on pupils' learning. This means that sometimes pupils move on to new learning too readily before having a secure understanding of the required knowledge. At other times, pupils are not given the opportunity to deepen their learning before moving on. The school should ensure that effective checks on pupils' knowledge are made so that pupils build up a secure body of knowledge over time.
• The school has not ensured that some staff have the expertise they need to implement the curriculum consistently well. This hinders pupils from achieving as well as they could across all subjects. The school should ensure that these staff have the support and professional development they need to implement the intended curriculum well.
• At times, the school has not ensured that staff use the adaptation strategies identified to support pupils' individual needs. This sometimes hinders pupils' ability to learn the most important knowledge and skills. The school should ensure that staff have the guidance and expertise needed to use these adaptation strategies consistently well.
• In some subjects, the school's oversight of how well pupils achieve is not sharp enough. This means that improvements to the quality of education that pupils receive are not as precise as they should be to improve pupils' outcomes. The school should improve how well it uses the evaluation of pupils' performance to inform future improvements to the curriculum.

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