Aspire Ap School

Overview: Aspire Ap School is a harmonious and supportive place to learn, where pupils feel safe and valued. The school has transformed the lives of many pupils who have had negative experiences of education, and they re-engage with learning effectively. The school's atmosphere is calm and purposeful, with staff supporting pupils to achieve success academically and pastorally.

Strengths:

• The school is a harmonious place to learn, with pupils behaving well and feeling safe.
• Staff support pupils to achieve success, both academically and pastorally.
• The school's enrichment offer is well-developed, with residential visits and trips out of school helping pupils develop their independence and broaden their experiences.
• The school's work to support pupils' behaviour and attitudes is commendable, with pupils highly motivated to earn behaviour points.
• The personal, social and health education (PSHE) programme is wide-ranging and well-prepared pupils for British society.

Areas to improve:

• In some subjects, the important knowledge, skills and vocabulary pupils need to know are not clearly set out in the curriculum, impacting on how well pupils learn in these subjects.
• At times, teachers' checks on pupils' learning of the curriculum are not sharp enough, meaning that tasks set for pupils are not sufficiently matched to their learning needs.
• The targets for pupils with SEND are not written with enough precision, meaning that teachers do not adapt lessons for some pupils with SEND to help them achieve as well as they could.

Safeguarding: The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.