An education hub in Burnley has been rated as ‘requires improvement’ at its latest Ofsted inspection.

The Aspire Hub, owned by Aspire Behaviour Management, helps children who have been excluded or are on the brink of exclusion to get back into a mainstream school.

Ofsted say the Hammerton Street school needs to develop its curriculum and train staff before the next inspection, in order to improve its rating.

A spokesperson for The Aspire Hub said they have taken the feedback on board and are in the process of making changes.

Aspire Hub was inspected in February and the inspector said pupils feel happy and safe, adding that pupils enjoy going there.

Leaders expect all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities to achieve highly.

Pupils were said to receive high quality pastoral support to help them to re-engage successfully with education. Pupils said that leaders and staff deal with bullying effectively.

According to the report, staff have effective safeguarding procedures in place.

The report has also highlighted areas for improvement including staff experience and some areas of the curriculum.

It said: “In some subjects, the curriculum is not as well designed as it should be. This makes it difficult for pupils to develop a deep and rich body of subject knowledge

“Some staff lack the experience and expertise to deliver the curriculum, including the phonics programme, well.

“This hampers how well teachers address pupils’ misconceptions in their learning, including in reading.

“Leaders must provide staff with the training and support that they require to develop sufficient expertise to deliver the curriculum, including the phonics programme, well.

“There are insufficient opportunities for pupils to develop their wider talents and interests. Leaders should develop a carefully considered programme of wider personal development that meets pupils’ learning needs.”

The report said some new staff “do not have the confidence and training that they require to implement the school’s behaviour policy as intended” which can impact pupil’s learning.

A spokesperson for Aspire Behaviour Management, which also has a school in Bolton, said they are happy that children feel happy and safe at school.

The spokesperson said: “We feel like the report is relatively positive, based on what we do as a school, as we still get the same Ofsted inspection that any mainstream school would get.

“We are glad that the report highlights how pupils feel happy and safe at school and that they enjoy coming to school as that is our main aim.

“Once pupils enjoy school and feel safe we can break down their barriers to learning.”

They add that the negatives of the report, such as staff experience and training, come down to recruitment struggles.

A spokesperson said: “A lot of the negative aspects of the report come down to current recruitment struggles that the whole education and social care system is facing.

“The report highlights that new staff are unable to deliver the behaviour policy in the same way as more experienced staff.

“We have a lot of measures in place, including a full induction process, to improve staff before they get into the classroom.

“We are working with some external agencies to improve our curriculum and its design and also to support pupils in accessing this.”