Setting

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 1231 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Ben Morgan Acting Principal The Burton Borough School Audley Avenue Newport Shropshire TF10 7DS

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Requires improvement monitoring inspection of The Burton Borough School

This letter sets out the findings from the monitoring inspection of your school that took place on 20 April 2023, on behalf of His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills. The monitoring inspection was carried out under section 8(2) of the Education Act 2005 and took place because the school has received two successive judgements of requires improvement at its previous graded (section 5) inspections.

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Requires improvement monitoring inspection of The Burton Borough School

During the inspection, I discussed with you and other senior leaders, governors and the local authority the actions that have been taken to improve the school since the most recent graded inspection. We discussed the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. I also spoke with subject leaders of the English, history, science and geography departments and with the special educational needs and disabilities coordinator, visited lessons, spoke to pupils, looked at books and scrutinised policies and school documents. I have considered all this in coming to my judgement.

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progress to improve the school, but more work is necessary for the school to

The school should take further action to:

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progress to improve the school, but more work is necessary for the school to

 ensure that all teachers make effective use of the information they receive about pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) to deliver lessons that meet the needs of these pupils consistently well.  ensure that teachers systematically and accurately check if pupils have understood the key knowledge they have been taught and that teachers make good use of assessment information to adapt their teaching where necessary.

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Main findings

Since the previous inspection, there have been several staffing changes. These include changes to your leadership team. You have restructured the leadership team to refocus and align the work of your team to the school’s most pressing priorities. For example, you have placed greater significance on the quality of the provision for pupils with SEND by appointing a vice-principal responsible for this area of the school. Other changes include new heads of science and physical education. These staff have joined the school since the school was last inspected. At the time of the inspection, the school was fully staffed.

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Main findings

You are taking effective action to improve the quality of education at the school. You have identified the important levers for success in each aspect of your work and are tackling these in the right order. This work, and in particular the work you have done to improve the detail of curriculum plans and the provision for pupils with SEND, is beginning to address some of the shortcomings identified at the previous inspection. You have made shrewd changes to your leadership team as well as making effective use of support from external agencies, such as the local authority, to raise the profile of SEND across the school. Increasingly, teachers now think carefully about the individual needs of pupils, and most teachers use the information they have about pupils well to adapt their teaching to meet these needs. This work is beginning to have a positive impact on the experiences of pupils with SEND.

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Main findings

You have also successfully redesigned the curriculum to make sure that the precise knowledge you want pupils to know is ordered sensibly. While there is more work to be done in a small number of subjects, this work is already helping teachers to design lessons that closely align with the intended curriculum.

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Main findings

You have begun to tackle the weaknesses in assessment identified at the previous inspection. However, there is still too much variability in the use of assessment across the school. The structures and mechanisms that teachers use to check on pupils’ progress through the curriculum do not always help to identify if pupils have understood the precise things they have been taught. Because of this, teachers are not able to take swift action to rectify gaps in pupils’ learning. This hinders learning.

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Main findings

You and your leadership team are driven and determined. You have worked tirelessly to restore relationships with parents and pupils following the COVID-19 pandemic. This work is leading towards a shift in perceptions of the school in the local community. There have been significant changes to governance since the previous inspection. A new governing body was installed at the start of the current academic year. Governors are highly skilled and provide appropriate levels of challenge and support for school leaders. They have been integral in driving forward improvement at the school.

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Main findings

Leaders have developed strong links with external providers to support the development of their work. They have been proactive in developing these links and welcome the challenge provided. This work is having a positive impact on the progress of the school. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the Department for Education’s regional director and the director of children’s services for Telford and Wrekin. This letter will be published on the Ofsted reports website.

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