Shorefields School

Shorefields School Ogilvie House, 114 Holland Road, Clacton-on-Sea, CO15 6HF

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Outstanding 1 This inspection: Outstanding 1 Achievement of pupils Outstanding 1 Quality of teaching Outstanding 1 Behaviour and safety of pupils Outstanding 1 Leadership and management Outstanding 1

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is an outstanding school.  All groups of pupils make outstanding progress, including pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and those who are looked after by the local authority.  The sixth form (‘the college’) is outstanding. Students make remarkable progress in the sixth form. They are taught exceptionally well through highly relevant, well-thought-out programmes and activities. These prepare them extremely well for their next placement and for life within their local communities.  Teachers are skilled at getting the very best out of pupils and stimulating them to listen, think and try their best.  Teaching assistants make a very strong contribution to learning in lessons through their excellent support for pupils’ academic, medical and physical needs.  Pupils’ behaviour is exemplary. They are polite, respectful to each other and adults, and work together well. They feel very safe.  Pupils’ personal, social and emotional

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

development and their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development are exceptional. The school provides many opportunities for pupils to work together towards becoming independent.  Senior leaders, including governors, work extremely well together to improve the school and to ensure that pupils do their very best.  Leaders have an accurate view of the school’s effectiveness and their sharp focus on staff training has continued to improve the quality of teaching. As a result, teaching is excellent.  The school has rightly identified the need to extend the role of teachers who lead subjects and key stages so that they take more responsibility for pupils meeting their key stage targets.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 11 lessons, all of which were joint observations with senior leaders. In addition, the inspection team made short visits to other lessons, looked at pupils’ work and heard them read.  Meetings were held with staff, pupils and governors, including the Chair of the Governing Body and leader of the curriculum committee, and a representative from the local authority.  Inspectors took account of the 17 responses to the online questionnaire (Parent View) as well as other testimonies from parents and carers and questionnaires completed by staff.  The inspection team observed the school’s work and looked at a number of documents, including the school’s improvement planning and the information it keeps on pupils’ current progress. The team also looked at documentation relating to the staff’s performance management (the checking on how well they are doing and the setting of targets to help them

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Inspection team

Justina Ilochi, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Lynda Walker Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Shorefields is an all-age special school.  It provides mostly for pupils who have severe learning difficulties, profound and multiple learning difficulties and autistic spectrum disorders. All pupils have a statement of special educational needs.  The school’s sixth form is called ‘the college’. ‘The college’ currently works with thirty-two 14 to 19 year-olds studying a core life skills programme and a range of vocational courses at various levels including Entry 1 and Entry 2.  A high proportion of the pupils are supported through the pupil premium (additional funding for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals or who are looked after by the local authority).  Almost all pupils are White British.  A few students attend local colleges such as Colchester Institute which offer a variety of vocational 14 to 19 courses.  On the first day of the inspection, the school’s annual Christmas production took place to which

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Information about this school

parents and carers, as well as pupils, were invited.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Extend the school’s processes for ensuring that teachers who lead subjects and key stages exercise enough rigour in accounting for the progress of pupils towards their end of key stage targets.

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The achievement of pupils outstanding

 All groups of pupils, including those who have severe learning difficulties, profound and multiple learning difficulties and autistic spectrum disorders, make outstanding progress. This is because of the outstanding teaching and exceptional training provided for teachers and additional adults. As a result, pupils are very well supported individually to do the best they can.

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The achievement of pupils outstanding

 Pupils make outstanding progress in all key stages including the Early Years Foundation Stage. Progress is particularly exceptional in English and mathematics because numeracy and literacy are well taught in all subjects through an extremely well-planned curriculum. For example, pupils successfully focused on learning the meaning, pronunciation and spelling of important key words in a mathematics lesson and teachers understood that, by doing so, they improved their listening, language and communication.

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The achievement of pupils outstanding

 Pupils with autistic spectrum disorders and those with profound and multiple learning difficulties also make outstanding progress in developing communication skills. For example in an individualised lesson for pupils with profound and multiple learning difficulties, teachers and additional adults used visual cues and photographs to ensure that pupils’ listening and concentration skills were developed exceptionally well.

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The achievement of pupils outstanding

 Students make remarkable progress in ‘the college’. They follow highly relevant, well-thought- out programmes and gain qualifications in life skills modules, catering and hospitality, horticulture and community and leisure that prepare them extremely well for their next placement and for their life within their local communities. Individualised programmes, such as courses that include functional mathematics, English and information and communication technology enable students studying at the Colchester Institute to make significant progress both academically and in improved attendance.

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The achievement of pupils outstanding

 Support for pupils’ next steps, whether in academic subjects or their personal development, underpins everything the school does. Targets set for pupils by their teachers challenge them to achieve even more and, consequently, they do. Their self-confidence grows as they proceed through the school and become increasingly independent.

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The achievement of pupils outstanding

 Pupils who have the most complex medical needs achieve as well as other pupils. Individual pupils who are taught at home for part of the time using excellent sensory resources develop exceptional communication skills due to excellent home teaching and the links between home and school.

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The achievement of pupils outstanding

 The school targets the additional money it receives, such as the pupil premium, exceptionally well to ensure that all pupils achieve outstandingly well. Pupil premium funding is used to buy in additional support staff and to subsidise payment for school visits. Pupils in receipt of this support do just as well as other pupils because additional staff constantly encourage and support them.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Teaching is outstanding overall and has led to outstanding progress because of the unwavering focus of leaders on ensuring that no teaching is less than good.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Teaching in ‘the college’ is also outstanding because of the way in which learning is tailored to each individual student, and the very clear focus everyone has on what each student is working towards.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Teachers are skilled at getting the best out of pupils and stimulating them to listen, think and try their best. Parents and carers say, rightly, that their children are supported extremely well by experienced teachers who know how to explain things and interest them.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Teaching is supported by a detailed understanding of pupils’ current attainment, what they do well and what they need to learn next. School leaders check very carefully that the information collected about pupils’ progress is accurate and used effectively by teachers to plan and adapt their lessons to each pupil’s needs.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Teachers’ use of questions and excellent resources help pupils to work things out for themselves. This is a particularly strong feature of the school. For example in a mathematics lesson, the teacher used a combination of excellent questioning and calculators to explain the word ‘calculate’ so that pupils were able to link the word with its actual real-life use and do some calculations themselves.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Praise is often used effectively to help pupils recognise how well they are doing and when to move on. Consequently, lessons move at just the right pace. This keeps pupils highly interested and motivated. Staff are adept at providing many opportunities for them to make outstanding progress.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 The school uses every lesson to promote pupils’ communication and language skills and teachers do this exceptionally well. An extensive range of experienced staff enables the school to provide a rich variety of experiences for pupils, especially in ‘the college’, to practise and use their developing skills in real-life situations.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Teaching assistants make a very strong contribution to learning in lessons. They develop excellent relationships with pupils and are skilled at giving them just enough help so that they still have to think for themselves.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Pupils say they love their school and that their teachers are ‘brilliant’, and their behaviour reflects this. They are polite, respectful to each other and adults, and want to do their best.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Those who have behavioural needs on entry to school make remarkable progress in managing their own behaviour. This is because everyone expects them to do their best to improve and provides them with the help to do so. It is also because teachers are so skilled at motivating pupils and managing their behaviour positively.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 The excellent range of programmes to encourage pupils’ personal, social and emotional development means that pupils have a strong understanding of how to keep themselves healthy and safe.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 All parents and carers agree that their children are kept safe. They are pleased with how happy their children are to come to school, and this is reflected in the very high attendance of those who do not have medical needs.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Pupils get on with each other extremely well; bullying of any kind is very rare indeed and pupils know that they can talk to an adult if they are being bullied.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 The behaviour of students in ‘the college’ is exemplary. They settle quickly to their lessons, are keen to improve and are proud to be part of the school. Students relish the opportunities to demonstrate their self-discipline, hard work and entrepreneurial skills acquired through vocational subjects such as woodwork and gardening and monitoring their own progress towards their personal targets.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The exceptional vision of the headteacher and the senior team inspires the school to ensure that every pupil receives the support they need to make outstanding progress, both personally and in academic subjects.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The school is exceptional in the way that it gets the best out of everyone, staff and pupils alike. Rigorous checking on how pupils are doing and how well lessons help each to learn ensures continuous progress through all key stages and in ‘the college’.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Leaders are constantly looking for new and better ways of doing things and updating teachers’ skills. Teachers who lead subjects and key stages play a very important role especially in the modelling of outstanding teaching. The school has, rightly, identified the need to extend their role so that they take greater responsibility for the progress pupils make towards their end of key stage targets.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Senior leaders and governors share a remarkable sense of ambition and drive to improve the work of the school. They understand and celebrate strengths and keep a sharp focus on any underperformance. This is evident in the exemplary work leaders have done in providing an outstanding curriculum that is continually reviewed. This underpins the excellent teaching and helps to ensure that all pupils, including those with the most complex medical needs, make outstanding progress.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 ‘The college’ is led extremely well, and reflects the exemplary leadership of the whole school and leaders’ determination to provide practical life experiences for all its students. The progress of students in ‘the college’ is exceptionally well managed.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Pupils’ personal development, including their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, is exceptional. Pupils have many opportunities to collaborate and to work towards becoming independent, for example, through school productions that celebrate cultural and religious festivals. An excellent example was the school annual Christmas production which gave pupils several chances to demonstrate personal skills through music and art.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Pupils’ safety is paramount and safeguarding procedures are followed meticulously. Excellent working with other agencies and parents and carers promote the safety, well-being and learning of all pupils exceptionally well.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Additional monies that the school receives, such as pupil premium funding, are used extremely well to promote pupils’ learning and involvement. In the last year, the school has used this funding to increase the number of additional adults, to employ staff with relevant experience of particular types of needs and to enhance the sensory curriculum for autistic pupils. Pupils for whom the school receives this funding have progressed as rapidly as other pupils and the gaps in progress that existed for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals are narrowing rapidly.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The local authority maintains a ‘light touch’ link with the school. Several areas of the school’s work, especially the way it ensures that literacy, numeracy and information and communication technology is taught through all subjects, is shared with local schools.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The governance of the school: The work of the governing body has contributed to the sustained, outstanding quality of education the school provides. Governors carry out their statutory responsibilities exceptionally well through extremely effective committees. Governors know the strengths and weaknesses of the school particularly well and hold leaders to account for the progress of its pupils. For example, the governing body has supported the ways the school has identified staff for further training in sign language in order to meet the needs of the growing numbers of pupils who need this to support their learning and social development. Governors are highly knowledgeable about the school’s work and quick to check on how well new initiatives are going and that they are making a difference. Governors are clear about how the school’s self- evaluation, the training that follows and the management of the performance of staff are

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The leadership and management are outstanding

linked to teachers’ pay. They have worked with the school to produce an outstanding plan for school improvement for the next five years which includes details of what training the staff need. They check that additional funding the school receives is spent appropriately. Governors are well trained and their training is continuous. They have ensured that data provided by the school is presented in ways they can understand. Consequently, they are able to judge how well pupils are doing and compare this with the performance of similar schools. They know that pupils are making outstanding progress.

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Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding An outstanding school is highly effective in delivering outcomes that provide exceptionally well for all its pupils’ needs. This ensures that pupils are very well equipped for the next stage of their education, training or employment. Grade 2 Good A good school is effective in delivering outcomes that provide well for all its pupils’ needs. Pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education, training or employment. Grade 3 Requires improvement A school that requires improvement is not yet a good school, but it is not inadequate. This school will receive a full inspection within 24 months from the date of this inspection. Grade 4 Inadequate A school that has serious weaknesses is inadequate overall and requires significant improvement but leadership and management are judged to be Grade 3 or better. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors. A school that requires special measures is one where the school is

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Grade Judgement Description

failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the school’s leaders, managers or governors have not demonstrated that they have the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors.

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School details

Unique reference number 115471 Local authority Essex Inspection number 403264

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School details

This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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School details

Type of school Special School category Community Age range of pupils 3–19 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 111 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Paul Rowlen Headteacher Jo Hodges Date of previous school inspection 4 February 2008 Telephone number 01255 424412 Fax number 01255 475938 Email address admin@shorefields.essex.sch.uk guidance ‘raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234 , or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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School details

You can use Parent View to give Ofsted your opinion on your child’s school. Ofsted will use the information parents and carers provide when deciding which schools to inspect and when and as part of the inspection.

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School details

You can also use Parent View to find out what other parents and carers think about schools in England. You can visit www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk, or look for the link on the main Ofsted website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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School details

achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work- based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection. Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please

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School details

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School details

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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