Longcroft School and Sixth Form College

Overview: Longcroft School and Sixth Form College is a good school where pupils are happy and safe. The school has made significant improvements since the last inspection, with a broad and well-sequenced curriculum that builds on pupils' knowledge from key stage 2. Pupils achieve increasingly strong outcomes.

Strengths:

• The school's curriculum is ambitious and meets and exceeds the breadth of the national curriculum in some areas.
• Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are well supported.
• The sixth-form offer is good, with a personalised experience for students and focused support from teachers.
• Leaders have high aspirations for all pupils and have led the school on a journey of improvement since the last inspection.
• The school has a good attendance record, with a member of staff employed to work with pupils and families to help remove barriers to attendance.

Areas to improve:

• Pupils do not receive careers advice in a logical order based on their age and experience, which can prevent them from making informed decisions about their future.
• Some pupils do not have an age-appropriate understanding of protected characteristics or fundamental British values, which can leave them unprepared for life in modern Britain.
• Teachers sometimes miss opportunities to assess pupils' learning during lessons, which can mean that some pupils move on to new learning before they are ready.

Safeguarding: The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.