Taunton school still needs "more work", says Ofsted

A secondary school in Taunton that was given a 'requires improvement' rating twice in a row still needs to make changes, according to Ofsted. Pyrland School recently received a monitoring visit from Ofsted, with the inspector concluding: "Leaders have made progress to improve the school, but more work is necessary for the school to become good."

Since their last inspection in 2022, the school hired a new headteacher, two assistant headteachers, two deputy headteachers, middle leaders and an interim special educational needs coordinator.

Amid all the changes, perhaps the school's greatest success was in reducing absences: "The school has prioritised raising attendance and reducing truancy. It has set clear and high expectations for pupils."

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The inspector continued: "It proactively seeks to remove the barriers that prevent pupils from attending school regularly. For example, the school has started to identify patterns of absence, including truancy, so that it can target its work to reduce this.

"There is emerging evidence that this work is starting to impact positively on rates of attendance, but further work is needed."

The school was similarly praised for improving the curriculum: "The school has taken effective action to ensure there is suitable curriculum breadth. The curriculum now identifies the most important knowledge and skills that pupils need to learn and the order in which they do so."

Other changes at the school were more of a mixed success, such as their approach to reading. The report read: "The school has started to make reading a priority. For example, pupils who are in the early stages of learning to read follow a phonics curriculum.

"The school uses assessment accurately to determine how successfully pupils build their phonics knowledge. However, the reading curriculum more widely is at an early stage of development."

The report continued: "More work is needed to establish a rigorous and sequential approach to the teaching of reading to support all pupils to develop their fluency, confidence and enjoyment."

The inspector noted the school's support of disabled pupils: "The school has strengthened its understanding of the needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Leaders have enhanced the information provided to teachers and check how well pupils’ needs are met.

"However, as improvements are in their early stages, it is too soon to fully evaluate their impact." Pyrland School is a secondary comprehensive that teaches children aged between 11 and 16.

Head teacher Lisa Webber said: "We were delighted with the outcome of the Ofsted monitoring visit. It's reassuring that the inspector recognised the speedy progress we've made over the last year. The Pyrland community is committed to providing a top class education to local families."