Selly Oak Trust School

Overview

Selly Oak Trust School continues to be a good school, where pupils feel happy, safe, and included within a supportive community. The school provides an ambitious, well-structured curriculum that prepares students for adult life, supported by strong staff relationships and effective governance.

Strengths

• Pupils benefit from "positive and productive relationships" with staff and peers, fostering a sense of belonging in an "accepting" school where bullying is rare.
• The curriculum is "well designed" and "ambitious," offering rich experiences, high-quality careers education, and opportunities for personal development that are described as "exceptional."
• Teachers possess "strong subject knowledge" and use assessment effectively to identify gaps, while staff feel supported, respected, and motivated in their roles.
• Leaders prioritise reading, with staff delivering phonics sessions "very well," ensuring most pupils become confident readers by the time they leave.
• Governance is strong, with governors ensuring leaders manage resources well and hold them to account for the quality of education provided.

Areas to improve

• Leaders should strengthen work with families and agencies to improve attendance and ensure staff help pupils catch up on missed work, as some pupils have "gaps in their knowledge."
• Leaders must ensure staff use the most effective pedagogical approaches and promote the use of "relevant academic language" to help pupils understand abstract concepts and progress through the curriculum.
• Leaders should take further action to embed provision in modern foreign languages, as pupils currently "do not learn as well in MFL as they do in other subjects."

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective, with a strong culture that supports the swift identification of at-risk pupils and robust recruitment and training procedures.