Wigan borough independent school charging £23K ‘not up to standard’ says Ofsted

The Lilford Centre in Tyldesley Wigan is run by Progress Schools Ltd, and has 11 pupils aged from nine to 16.

The day school caters for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

Many pupils have an education, health and care plan (EHCP). All pupils have experienced periods of disrupted learning prior to attending the school.

It was inspected in December following its standard inspection by Ofsted in July 2022 when the independent school standards weren’t met.

The latest report said: “[In 2022] inspectors found that the school had failed to draw up and implement a curriculum policy and schemes of work that provided pupils with a sufficiently broad and balanced curriculum.”

Following that inspection, the school submitted an action plan in December 2022 but it was rejected by the Department of Education because it did not provide ‘sufficient assurance that the proprietor body would resolve the issues identified’.

The report added: “When the school received a progress monitoring inspection in April 2023, inspectors found that the proprietors had not acted quickly enough to address the weaknesses identified in the curriculum that were identified in the standard inspection.

“Although the pupils now studied a border range of subject, the curriculum in these subjects was found to be underdeveloped and ineffective. Furthermore, pupils still lacked the support that they need to improve their reading knowledge.”

A further action plan submitted in July 2023 was also rejected by the DfE. At the latest monitoring inspection, the inspector found that curriculum development ‘remains incomplete in a number of subjects’.

The overall grading of the school following the visit by Ofsted in December is “inadequate”.

The report added that the proprietor body has ensured there is a suitable safeguarding policy in place and that it is published on the school’s website.

“There are secure procedures in place for staff to report any concerts that they might have about a pupil’s welfare,” it said. “The school communicates with other professionals, such as the local authority, to ensure that pupils are safe and well when not in school.”

Managing director of Progress Schools, Charlotte Barton, said: “Since the previous inspection, we have been working incredibly hard to address the concerns raised.

“Whilst we appreciate that Ofsted has a framework with which to write their report, we were disheartened to see a significant focus being placed on historical events in the published report rather than capturing more examples of the work we have been doing to drive up the standards of education.

“For example, we have overhauled our curriculum, which includes planning five academic years’ worth of the skills and knowledge for our students.

“But, because we have focused on developing the complete Schemes of Work for the core subjects and had not yet finalised all activities for lessons in the summer term in some other subjects, the standards for Quality of Education were not met.

“We had also implemented a new Phonics Curriculum that will address the concerns raised around our reading curriculum, but due to this being in its infancy when the inspection took place, we were unable to demonstrate the impact of this.

“Due to the above areas remaining unmet, Part 8 (leadership and Management) also remained unmet as the inspection handbook dictates that if you have any unmet standards in parts 1-7 you are also not meeting part 8.

“As a registered provider of alternative provision, with a cohort of students with varying complex needs, we place significant emphasis on supporting the individual needs of our students, and we remain committed to providing the very best education possible to them based on their requirements.”