UTC Derby Pride Park

Overview

The report describes a school that “transforms pupils’ attitudes towards their education” and provides a “highly specialist curriculum” informed by industry. Leaders have successfully established high expectations, resulting in pupils who are “respectful, resilient and to have high aspirations.”

Strengths

• “Behaviour and attitudes” are rated Outstanding, with pupils behaving “impeccably well” and greeting visitors with a smile.
• The curriculum is “broad” and goes “beyond exam specifications,” with employers taking a “lead role” in shaping specialist areas like health science and engineering.
• Teachers possess “strong subject knowledge” and use “highly effective teaching methods” to impart knowledge and check retention.
• Support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is effective, with needs “clearly identified” and strategies used well to help them achieve.
• Sixth-form students gain “detailed knowledge” and often secure “degree-level apprenticeships,” while alumni return to support current pupils.

Areas to improve

• In “a few subjects, teachers do not teach explicitly enough the most important knowledge” set out in curriculum plans, leading to some pupils not remembering it well enough.
• The school must ensure all teachers are “fully trained to use the pedagogical approach” consistently well.

Safeguarding

The report states that “the arrangements for safeguarding are effective.”