A SCHOOL that charges almost £23,000 a year will close down this year.

Located on Lancaster Avenue in Tyldesley, the Lilford Centre is an independent school which caters for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities, and tries to reintegrate pupils into mainstream education.

Ran by Progress Schools, the Lilford Centre's last Ofsted report shows that only 11 pupils were attending the school in December 2023, aged between 9 and 16.

Although the Lilford Centre charges the council £22,870 a year for each pupil's referral, the school was handed the worst Ofsted rating of 'Inadequate' in July 2022, after failures in the school's quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, and leadership and management.

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Standards not met at Ofsted inspections

Although improvements were made in terms of student safety and welfare, further inspections highlighted that the curriculum and leadership was still not up to scratch.

The latest report said: “[In 2022] inspectors found that the school had failed to draw up and implement a curriculum policy and schemes of work that provided pupils with a sufficiently broad and balanced curriculum.

“When the school received a progress monitoring inspection in April 2023, inspectors found that the proprietors had not acted quickly enough to address the weaknesses identified in the curriculum that were identified in the standard inspection.

“Although the pupils now studied a border range of subjects, the curriculum in these subjects was found to be underdeveloped and ineffective. 

"Furthermore, pupils still lacked the support that they need to improve their reading knowledge.”

Despite submitting action plans in December 2022 and July 2023, these were rejected by the Department of Education as it "did not provide sufficient assurance that this would resolve the issues identified at the standard inspection".

Pupils to be re-schooled by September

Following the continued failures at the Lilford Centre, it has now been confirmed that the school will close at the end of the academic year.

Progress Schools and Wigan Council has said that they are working together to ensure pupils are reschooled by September.

Another Progress school located in Wigan Youth Zone, for ‘disengaged’ pupils with special educational needs or disabilities', was graded as ‘Requires Improvement’ by Ofsted inspectors in February.

Managing Director of Progress Schools, Charlotte Barton, said: "Progress Schools and Wigan Council have mutually agreed to cease the commissioned agreement of the current school provision, allowing Progress Schools to focus on other school projects.

"We can confirm that the school will close at the end of this academic year.

“We are currently supporting students and their families as they work with Wigan Council on a suitable placement for September 2024."