The Rise Free School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 9 July 2024

Following the school's most recent inspection, leaders have taken decisive and effective action to improve the quality of education as well as pupils' behaviour. Consequently, pupils are more able to manage their emotions and typically subject curriculums are sequenced and support pupils to build their knowledge. Bullying is taken very seriously by the school, governing body and trust. The school has put in place personalised and targeted mentoring for individuals who find it particularly hard to maintain and sustain relationships with their peers. As a result, incidents of bullying have decreased over time. Bullying rarely happens and if it does, staff deal with it. Pupils are provided with opportunities to experience a range of careers. For example, they learn about caring for animals such as Cookie and Rosie the school's guinea pigs and visit a range of places of work such as hospitals and motor vehicle maintenance garages. In the sixth form, all students have the opportunity to study a vocational course from an extensive offer delivered by a local college. This supports students in the sixth form to think carefully about and plan for their future in either employment or further study. As a result, many students go on to university, internships, apprenticeships or paid employment.

What the school should improve

• On a few occasions, pupils' understanding and recall are not checked equally routinely in all subjects. As a result, sometimes pupils are not helped to build on what they already know or gaps or misconceptions are not identified. The school should ensure that all teachers check routinely what pupils know and remember to identify and address any gaps or misconceptions.
• Some knowledge and skills in the reading curriculum are not robustly mapped out, and not all staff have received training on how to support weaker readers across the curriculum. Consequentially, pupils sometimes do not develop their reading skills as swiftly as they should and therefore struggle to access some learning. The school should ensure that all staff, across all subjects, have the necessary skills and expertise to support all pupils to read fluently so that pupils can access their learning independently and mitigate the risk of cognitive overload.

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