Tudor Grange Academy Worcester

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school Senior leaders know their school well and have an accurate view of its strengths and weaknesses.

Their improvement plans are sharply focused. Outcomes in the past have been weak for boys and disadvantaged pupils. Current pupils at the school make better progress.

This is because of effective teaching and a redesigned, balanced curriculum that offers an appropriate range of subjects for pupils to study. Leaders track pupils' performance rigorously, so that they can put effective support in place when pupils fall behind and need to catch up. Leaders, including middle leaders, evaluate the quality of teaching effectively.

They suppo...rt teachers to improve their practice continuously. Leaders use the information they gather about teaching to put in place bespoke staff training to address quickly any issues they identify. Behaviour in lessons and at social times is good.

Pupils are courteous, friendly and well mannered. Fixed-term exclusions have reduced, and attendance has improved markedly. Fewer pupils are now persistently absent from school.

Pupils feel safe at school and are complimentary about the pastoral support they receive when they need it. Pastoral care is a strength at the school. Pupils on the whole feel happy and say that their teachers care about them and about how well they do.

Parents and staff are very supportive of school leaders. The majority of staff say that they enjoy working at the school and almost all parents who completed Ofsted's online questionnaire, Parent View, would recommend it to others. Governors, in the past, have not held leaders to account effectively.

The Tudor Grange multi-academy trust (MAT) has made a good start to addressing this issue. The MAT's chief executive officer (CEO) has been effective in providing challenge and support to leaders. The sixth form is not good because students do not yet achieve as well as they should.

Work- related learning opportunities exist but are not as well formalised as they could be. Students' participation in enrichment activities is uneven. In some lessons, teachers do not routinely have high enough expectations of the standard and quality of work that pupils, especially boys, should complete.

As a result, some work is not neatly presented or shows that teachers have not addressed poor literacy skills.

Information about this school

This school is a larger than average secondary school. The school is an academy and part of the 'Tudor Grange' multi-academy trust.

Governance to the school is provided by the local governing body. For an interim period the trust's CEO is providing some of the duties that the LGB would normally perform, namely to challenge leaders on operational matters such as outcomes for pupils and the quality of teaching. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is above average.

The proportion of pupils with SEND is above average. The number of pupils who have an education, health and care plan is average. Alternative provision is made for eight pupils from Years 8, 10 and 11 on part- and full-time placements at 'The Aspire Academy'.