'Too few teachers at Burnley special school know how to teach reading' (From Lancashire Telegraph)

'Too few teachers at Burnley special school know how to teach reading'

6:00pm Monday 11th March 2013 in News By Chris Gee, Reporter

AN inspector’s report on a special school which ‘requires improvement’ has stated ‘too few teachers know how to teach reading’.

An Ofsted inspector re-visited the Alternative and Complementary Education and Residential Service (ACERS) East Lancashire Campus, in Swindon Street, Bur-nley in January.

The school provides education for children permanently excluded from their school, those with behavioural problems, those unable to attend school due to ill health, and girls in the later stages of pregnancy, or new mothers who are unable to attend a mainstream school. In a letter to the school, inspector Angela Westington said: “Although literacy training has begun for all staff, too few know how to teach reading, nor how to intervene when a pupil’s progress in read-ing stalls.”

The visit was the first monit-oring inspection since the school was judged to require improvement following an inspection in November.

Ms Westington’s letter added: “Since the inspection, which judged the school to require improvement, one teacher and a teaching assistant have left.

“The special needs co-ordinator is on long-term sickness leave, and the medical manager is now acting pastoral deputy.

“Nevertheless, in a short space of time some important actions have taken place.

“Leaders have established and completed a first cycle of lesson observations.

“However, they acknowledge that staff are still not using the pupil attainment data that the centre holds to ensure that all lessons meet the specific needs of individual pupils.

“This is especially the case in reading and literacy.

“Lessons infrequently require pupils to read, and the planning for curriculum subjects is not linked to a wide, interesting and appropriate range of reading material for pupils,” added the inspector.