Lift Greenwood

Lift Greenwood is a secondary school within the Lift Schools Trust. Inspectors found the school meeting expected standards in curriculum and teaching, inclusion, leadership and governance, and personal development and wellbeing, with safeguarding standards met. The school has a broad, ambitious curriculum, strong teaching expertise, a whole-school reading priority, and effective inclusion for pupils with SEND. Professional development, staff morale, pupil behaviour, and personal development are notable strengths. The school has a resourced provision for pupils with autism and serves a disadvantaged community with high proportions of pupils eligible for free school meals and SEN support. However, achievement and attendance and behaviour are graded needs attention. Published key stage 4 outcomes are below national averages, with disadvantaged pupils and high prior attaining pupils not achieving as well as peers nationally, and gaps have widened. Leaders' actions are improving current progress, but recent teaching strategies are not yet fully embedded. Attendance remains below national and persistent absence is high, though targeted support is beginning to have a positive impact for some groups. Significant context includes a new principal appointed in April 2025, changes to leadership, and the school no longer offering post-16 provision. Next steps focus on consistently adapting learning to meet specific pupil needs, continuing to develop a high-attendance culture, and embedding effective teaching strategies so achievement improves rapidly.

Strengths

• Safeguarding standards are met, with an open culture of safeguarding.
• The curriculum is broad, ambitious and knowledge-rich, with clear end points and logical sequencing.
• Teachers have strong subject expertise and implement the school's 5 teaching and learning principles effectively.
• Reading is a whole-school priority with a positive reading culture that supports fluency, comprehension and vocabulary.
• Leaders remove barriers to learning and meet the needs of pupils with SEND swiftly.
• Classroom adaptations and resources enable pupils with SEND to access the full curriculum and make progress.
• Leaders deploy pupil premium funding effectively and work closely with external partners.
• Professional development is a notable strength, building expertise through coaching and collaborative planning.
• Staff feel valued and overwhelmingly proud to work at the school.
• Leaders engage parents, carers and the wider community effectively.
• Personal development is well-sequenced and develops character, wellbeing, safety, equality and British values.
• Enrichment has expanded, with wide participation from disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND.
• Careers education is effective, impartial and aspirational, preparing pupils for their next steps.
• Behaviour is calm and orderly, and pupils are polite and respectful.
• Suspensions and permanent exclusions have reduced, strengthening a culture of belonging.
• Pupils are safe, happy and known as individuals.
• The trust knows the school well and holds leaders to account effectively.
• Leaders have high expectations and act with clear moral purpose.

Areas for Improvement

• Key stage 4 outcomes are below national averages, with gaps widening for some pupils.
• Disadvantaged pupils and high prior attaining pupils do not achieve as well as their peers nationally.
• Disadvantaged pupils' progress and attainment remain below national averages.
• Attendance remains below national figures for several groups of pupils.
• Persistent absence is still high.
• Some lesson adaptations for pupils with SEND are not consistently precise, and guidance can be too generic.
• Lessons are not always sharp enough in supporting pupils' individual needs or developing independent learners.
• The impact of attendance strategies is not yet sustained or widespread enough.
• Recent effective teaching strategies are not yet embedded across the school to improve achievement rapidly.
• High attendance is not yet celebrated widely enough across the school community.

Admissions: local authority offers data from the Department for Education. A school is oversubscribed when at least 5% of the families who put it first were not offered a place, and undersubscribed when everyone who put it first got in but 10% or more of its places were unfilled in the Department's school capacity survey (the latest survey is used for entry years it does not cover). Places: Department for Education, School capacity, from local authorities' annual survey as at 1 May. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024–25); the survey was not run in 2020. Places include sixth form places. Forecasts are the local authority's own for the school's planning area, an area it uses to plan places that is not the school's catchment area. The forecast starts from a head count in 2025; the dashed line is the Department's estimate of places in that area, including those the authority has firm plans for. Planned places are cumulative, and only those with firm plans are counted.

In 2024–25 pupils at Lift Greenwood attended 87.1% of sessions (the national figure for secondary schools was 91.6%). 36.8% of pupils were persistently absent, missing at least one session in ten (nationally 23.4%).

Sessions missed

Pupils persistently absent

Source: Department for Education, Pupil absence in schools in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Persistent absence means missing 10% or more of sessions; severe absence means 50% or more. No figures were published for 2019/20.

In 2024–25, 4.7% of pupils at Lift Greenwood were suspended at least once (nationally 7.3%). No pupils were permanently excluded.

Pupils suspended at least once

Source: Department for Education, Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). A pupil can be suspended more than once, so suspensions per 100 pupils can be higher than the share of pupils suspended. Very small numbers are hidden by the DfE. Exclusion figures dropped in 2020 and 2021 because of school closures.

In 2025–26 Lift Greenwood had 17.0 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for secondary schools was 16.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 27.8% were no longer at the school a year later (nationally 14.1%).

Pupils per teacher

Teachers who left the school within a year

Source: Department for Education, School workforce in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Pupils per teacher counts full-time-equivalent pupils and teachers. Turnover is the share of a year's teachers (full-time equivalent) who were not at the school the following year, whether they moved to another school or left state-funded teaching. Turnover and sickness figures run one year behind the ratios. Sick leave is the share of teachers who took at least one day in the year, so it swings widely at small schools, where a few teachers can make it 0% or 100%. The national figures are for all state schools of the same type.

In 2025–26, 17.6% of pupils at Lift Greenwood were on SEN support (nationally 14.1%) and 3.2% had an education, health and care (EHC) plan (nationally 3.5%).

The school has resourced provision with 17 pupils.

Pupils by main type of need

Source: Department for Education, Special educational needs in England (the 2025–26 school census). SEN support is extra help in school without an EHC plan. National figures are for all state-funded secondary schools. Counts are as published, with small numbers not hidden.

In 2024–25 Lift Greenwood received £10,331 and spent £9,883 for each of its 950 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £763,000 (£803 per pupil).

Across all 59 schools of Lift Schools, income was £8,746 and spending £8,644 per pupil.

Income per pupil

Spending per pupil

Source: Department for Education, Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool. Each year is the one the financial year ends in (2024 is 2023–24). Academy figures include a share of the trust's central services, shared out by pupil numbers, and are rounded to the nearest £1,000. Premises costs were defined differently from 2024, so compare them across that gap with care.

• Primary Schools
• Secondary Schools

All schools in Birmingham · Birmingham local authority: places and applications

Lift Greenwood is part of Lift Schools, which runs 62 schools. The nearest others:

• Lift Lea Forest Birmingham
• Lift Montgomery Birmingham
• Lift Percy Shurmer Birmingham
• Lift Tamworth Tamworth
• Lift Rawlett Tamworth
• Lift Four Dwellings Primary Birmingham
• Lift Four Dwellings Secondary Birmingham
• Lift Anglesey Burton-On-Trent
• Lift Beacon Loughborough
• Lift Crescent View Cheltenham

What is Lift Greenwood's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Lift Greenwood is Needs attention, from an inspection in March 2026.

When was Lift Greenwood last inspected by Ofsted?

Lift Greenwood was last inspected in March 2026.

How many pupils does Lift Greenwood have?

Lift Greenwood has 935 pupils on roll.

What age range does Lift Greenwood cover?

Lift Greenwood for pupils aged 11 to 18.

What are Lift Greenwood's GCSE results?

In 2026 its average Attainment 8 score was 34.8, and 36% of pupils achieved grade 5 or above in both English and maths GCSE.

Where is Lift Greenwood?

Lift Greenwood is at Farnborough Road, Castle Vale, Birmingham, West Midlands, B35 7NL.