Pupils at two Wigan high schools will brush up on their reading skills after coronavirus closures

Ofsted inspectors found some pupils in years seven and eight at Hindley High and in year seven at Lowton CE High were not reading as well as would be expected at this time of year.

It follows the closure of schools to most pupils last year, when the first national lockdown was imposed to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Staff at both schools are now providing extra support to help the children to improve literacy.

The findings followed visits to both schools by education inspectors to look at their work since September, when schools re-opened fully.

Ofsted is not currently carrying out routine inspections, but is looking at a sample of schools nationwide to gather information for the Government and education sector.

The inspectors did not find “any significant concerns” at either school.

Inspector Rachel Goodwin, who conducted a remote visit to Lowton, found every pupil had worked from home at least once during the autumn term, with those in years eight and 11 having two periods of isolation. They were following the full subjects in the curriculum, with “minor adjustments” to the order in some subjects, and teachers were using strategies to identify any content pupils could not remember from previous learning.

Some pupils were “less confident” at writing at length, having done less handwritten work in the summer term, so English lessons were focusing on this. Year 11 pupils had extra time for English, maths and science during the school day, while there was also additional time for several subjects after school, to help them catch up.

At Hindley, inspector Ahmed Marikar found three in four pupils had to work from home at some time during the autumn. All pupils were studying the usual range of subjects, with “minimal changes” to the order of the curriculum, and they had access to specialist rooms and equipment.

Remote education was used for pupils who were isolating, with leaders in the process of training staff how to use a new online system for remote learning.

Lowton was rated as “requiring improvement” at its last full inspection in June 2019, while Hindley was deemed “inadequate” in March 2020.

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