The Telford Langley School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 2 July 2024

Pupils feel safe and enjoy attending this caring, community-focused school. The school is doing a great amount to support pupils pastorally to help them to engage positively with education. Pupils are understood and listened to. They know that staff are there to help them and deal with any issues if they arise. Across the school, pupils generally behave well in lessons and during social times. Pupils' attendance is improving. The school works effectively to support pupils and families to overcome any barriers with this. However, a significant number of pupils do miss out on time in lessons. This can be due to a variety of reasons and slows their progress through the ambitious curriculum that is in place. Overall, the quality of outcomes for pupils and their wider work are not as high as they should be. Pupils benefit from the personal development curriculum in place. There has been recent growth in pupil leadership opportunities. For example, through the reading and sports ambassadors. The school is committed to developing pupils' wider interests with clubs and extra-curricular activities available. Pupils have a strong embrace of diversity and fundamental British values. Careers education for older pupils is supporting them to make their next step.

What the school should improve

• Pupils' understanding is not always checked well enough before moving on to the next part of the curriculum. As a result, pupils have gaps in their knowledge and the work given is not always well matched to their needs. The school should ensure that teachers check pupils' understanding consistently well to enable pupils, especially disadvantaged pupils, to build knowledge more effectively over time.
• A significant proportion of pupils do not arrive to lessons on time and are out of lessons because of sanctions. This poor attendance in lessons results in missed opportunities to learn and hinders their progress. The school should ensure that it is doing all it can to secure the improvements in pupils' punctuality and behaviour.
• The school does not currently meet the requirements of the provider access legislation for careers education. As a result, pupils in key stage 3 are not exposed to a wide enough range of opportunities to develop an understanding of all the routes available to them. The school needs to ensure that the requirements of the legislation are fulfilled, aiming to ensure that pupils gain a better understanding of how they can make a successful start to their careers.
• Strategic use of pupil premium funding is not as well developed as it could be. As a result, disadvantaged pupils are not being supported effectively enough to improve their behaviour, attendance and progress in learning. The school should ensure that the funding is used effectively to support pupils and has a demonstrable impact over time.

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