Langdale CofE School

Overview

The report states that the school "requires significant improvement" because it is "performing significantly less well than it might in all the circumstances reasonably be expected to perform." While safeguarding standards are met and pupils generally feel safe, the quality of education has declined due to ineffective governance and inconsistent teaching practices.

Strengths

• Safeguarding standards are met, with an "open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility."
• Leaders identify special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) "quickly and accurately," ensuring pupils receive timely support.
• Pupils develop a "clear sense of right and wrong" and appreciate difference through links with international schools.
• Disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND benefit from targeted activities, such as bushcraft, and access the full personal development programme.
• Staff build "warm and caring relationships" with pupils, and bullying is rare and dealt with effectively.

Areas to improve

• Governors must fulfil their statutory duty to support leaders' wellbeing while holding them to account to ensure the school has the capacity for sustained improvement.
• Leaders must ensure teachers design activities that help pupils "connect new knowledge to what they have learned previously" to build a secure body of knowledge.
• Leaders should ensure teachers identify and rectify gaps in pupils' handwriting, spelling, grammar, and number knowledge, and refine the early years curriculum.

Safeguarding

The report confirms that "safeguarding standards are met," noting that leaders have established an open culture where concerns are actively identified and managed, ensuring pupils are made safer and feel safe.