Thrapston: Ofsted say inadequate private school 'not making progress'

Ofsted found a lack of "meaningful opportunities to learn" at Progress School in Thrapston

A private school that was rated inadequate last year has still not made sufficient progress, Ofsted inspectors said.

They found pupils at Progress School in Thrapston, Northamptonshire "did not have meaningful opportunities to learn".

The regulator also said that lessons "contributed weakly to their learning".

The school has capacity for 60 children aged 11-16, but 27 were on its roll when Ofsted visited in April.

The school offers education to pupils with behavioural, social, emotional and mental health needs, and many of these pupils had been excluded from their previous schools.

Ofsted found pupils at the school, whose annual fees range between £14,500 and £32,500, were "not able to recall their learning" and "did not develop skills as well as they could".

'Complex backgrounds'

Ofsted said there were some signs that the school's learning environment is "starting to improve" after it was first graded inadequate in March 2022.

But it said leaders had "not ensured that pupils' educational needs were being met" and that individual plans had not been created for every pupil.

The Progress Schools group's managing director, Charlotte Barton, said: "Despite discussing the level of complex backgrounds our students come to us with, I do not feel that enough consideration was given to the individual progression of our students from their starting points."

Another school run by Progress, in Northampton, was rated inadequate last year and was not meeting required standards when it was visited by the schools regulator in March.

Pupils were again found to have not "gained knowledge, deepened their understanding or developed skills as well as they could".