Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee School, Horsham

Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee School Comptons Lane, Horsham, West Sussex, RH13 5NW

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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.  Pupils make outstanding progress in their learning and development. Throughout the school, they are extremely well prepared for the next stage of their education.  The school supports the development of pupils’ communication skills particularly well. Staff use a variety of sign and symbol communication systems very skilfully and match these well to pupils’ individual needs.  Support for pupils in lessons allows them to learn with a high degree of independence. Teachers and other adults have an acute awareness of pupils’ abilities and use this well to judge accurately when to help them.  Pupils with profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD) are taught and supported very proficiently. Teachers ensure that they are given a range of different experiences to significantly broaden their development.  Pupils’ progress in reading is a little slower than their development in other areas of

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

learning. School leaders have recognised this and have taken suitable actions to improve the consistency with which reading is taught.  The sixth form is outstanding. Pupils achieve exceptionally well and gain a good range of accredited awards.  Teachers assess pupils’ learning and development regularly and accurately. They use the information they gain about pupils’ progress exceptionally well to plan lessons and activities that are strongly matched to pupils’ needs, strengths and preferences.  Pupils feel very safe at school and often enjoy learning immensely. They participate as enthusiastically in lessons as their abilities allow. The school is justifiably proud of the absence of bullying or racist behaviour.  Almost all pupils attend school very regularly.  School leaders have ensured that there is a culture of high expectations and continuous improvement across the school. Staff understand and respond very well to these

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

expectations because they are committed to providing pupils with the very best care and education.  There is a highly appropriate mix of subjects for pupils to learn, with suitable emphasis on developing their literacy and numeracy skills. The performing arts specialism of the school gives them unique opportunities to express themselves and link with the community.  The governing body makes rigorous checks on how well the school is doing.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors, together with the headteacher and deputy headteacher, observed teaching and learning in 13 lessons, taught by seven teachers.  Pupils and school leaders met with the inspectors to discuss the school’s work.  The inspectors met with members of the governing body, and a representative from the local authority.  The inspectors looked carefully at a range of documents including the school’s tracking of pupils’ progress, safeguarding information, the school’s checks on how well it is doing and its improvement plan as well as minutes of meetings held by the governing body.  Inspectors considered the views of 22 parents and carers provided through the online Parent View survey and a letter to the team. They also took information from the school’s own recent survey of parents and carers into account. The inspectors also considered the views of 53 staff who had completed the staff questionnaire.

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Inspection team

Jon Carter, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Veronica Young Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 All pupils have statements of special educational needs. The main areas of need are severe learning difficulties and profound and multiple learning difficulties. In the sixth form, there are a number of pupils with moderate learning difficulties who joined from other schools at the end of Key Stage 4. Many pupils have complex needs and, for example, epilepsy and autism spectrum disorders.  The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for the pupil premium, which is additional funding for looked after children, pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and children of service families, is above average. The school has a larger than average proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and no children from service families. There are four pupils eligible for the Year 7 catch-up premium but this funding has only just been received by the school.  Pupils mainly come from White British backgrounds. Small proportions of pupils come from

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Information about this school

Mixed White and Black Caribbean and Pakistani backgrounds.  The Early Years Foundation Stage provision in the school includes children from Nursery through to Year 1 where it is the most developmentally appropriate provision for their needs. Additional children join this class from mainstream schools as part of the school’s outreach work.  The school has specialist status for the performing arts.  The school makes use of alternative provision for sixth form pupils at Central Sussex College, where they learn vocational and functional skills, as well as Brinsbury College where pupils study horticulture-related activities. The school also uses facilities at Collyers College for food technology. The school does not enter pupils for GCSE examinations, so it does not have an early entry policy.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Accelerate the speed at which pupils’ reading skills develop, by ensuring that:  all classroom staff have sufficient training and guidance on their practice to teach reading skills using the sounds that letters make (phonics) to a consistently high standard  teaching is highly personalised for all pupils by setting very challenging targets for individuals in reading, and using information and communication technology resources even more widely  the impact on learning of activities to develop reading in the performing arts and other after- school activities is recorded  parents and carers are given tailored advice about how to support their children’s reading at home.

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Pupils’ achievement in lessons and over time is outstanding. Throughout the school, pupils learn and develop exceptionally well. Children in the Early Years Foundation Stage make particularly rapid progress in their communication skills.  Pupils who are at an early stage of development for their age due to their profound and multiple learning difficulties make excellent progress. Their responses, communication and interaction develop well because they are helped to experience familiar and new objects and activities in a structured and consistent way.  Pupils in the sixth form make outstanding progress. They develop excellent resilience and interpersonal skills as well as making very strong progress in their basic literacy and numeracy skills. Pupils’ independence and personal skills develop very well as a result of the opportunities they have to study at different colleges. For example, all of them qualify for accredited awards in

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

catering-related subjects. Sixth form pupils are prepared very well for life after school.  The school is very effective at ensuring that there is equality of opportunity for all pupils. For example, those known to be eligible for pupil premium funding learn and develop at similar rates to other pupils. This is because information and communication technology (ICT) equipment, purchased using the funding, enables these pupils to be set highly personalised learning tasks. There is very little difference between the performance of boys and girls, or between that of pupils from different ethnic backgrounds.  Pupils’ literacy, numeracy and communication skills typically develop very well. However, their progress in reading is less rapid than in other areas of learning. Some pupils find it difficult to read unfamiliar words because they do not have a strong enough knowledge of the sounds that letters make (also known as phonics).

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The achievement of pupils is outstanding

 Pupils join the school with levels of skill that are very low because of their special educational needs. For this reason, they do not reach the milestones that pupils of similar ages are expected to reach. Nevertheless, their achievements are significant and recognised through the successful completion of accredited awards.  Almost all parents and carers who provided a response to the Parent View or school questionnaires felt that their children make very good progress.

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

 Teaching is typically outstanding. Staff usually have very high expectations of what pupils can achieve. There is a very effective school-wide focus on improving pupils’ communication, interaction and independence.  Teachers and other staff have an in-depth knowledge of pupils’ needs, strengths and preferences. They observe pupils diligently and assess their learning accurately. The robustness of teachers’ assessments is checked regularly by comparing pupils’ work with that completed by other pupils in different classes and schools.  Planning makes very thorough use of assessment information. This ensures that learning tasks are very well matched to pupils’ individual needs. This generates high levels of enjoyment, enthusiasm and engagement for pupils.  Teachers and other adults check pupils’ learning and understanding continually during lessons. They take excellent account of pupils’ responses and make very appropriate adaptations to the

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

lesson to move pupils’ learning on rapidly.  Pupils are given frequent and regular feedback about their learning. Lessons incorporate plenty of opportunities for pupils to repeat skills to improve their familiarity and reinforce their learning before moving on to applying those skills in new situations.  Teaching promotes pupils’ independence exceptionally well. For example, in a science lesson for Years 2 to 6, pupils were able to explore different alternatives for solving the problem of the teacher having ‘a hole in her bucket’. Staff skilfully led conversations with pupils by asking relevant questions. Pupils learned that some solutions worked and others did not because they were able to choose for themselves the materials and processes they wanted to try.  Teaching typically makes excellent use of ICT. Pupils are very well motivated by equipment that allows them to interact with their environment. Individual tablet computers ensure that teachers

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The quality of teaching is outstanding

can give pupils learning tasks which are chosen to meet their specific individual needs.  The teaching of reading is usually very effective. However, there is not always a consistently high standard because not all adults have yet had sufficient training and support to teach reading skills accurately using the sounds that letters make (phonics) and the targets set for pupils in reading are not always highly challenging.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

 Pupils typically have outstanding attitudes to learning. Teachers make the best use of activities which stimulate and engage them very well. There are very strong relationships between pupils and all members of staff. As a result, pupils behave very well in lessons.  Where pupils’ behaviour becomes more challenging due to their special educational needs, staff respond consistently very well. The learning of other pupils is not affected by these incidents and those involved are often swiftly re-engaged with learning.  Pupils feel very safe at school and when learning at the colleges. There is no bullying and staff foster good relations between pupils who come from different ethnic backgrounds. As a result, there have been no racist incidents at the school since the previous inspection.  The increasing use of ICT for teaching and learning has allowed pupils to learn, at a level appropriate to their age and stage of development, about keeping safe when using computers

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are outstanding

and the internet.  Pupils’ attendance, including when learning at the colleges or on one of the many off-site visits, is similar to that of all pupils nationally. This represents a substantial achievement. The small proportion of pupils who are persistently absent from school all have significant medical conditions for which they receive regular hospital treatment.  Parents, carers and staff strongly agree that pupils are kept safe and behave well at school.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The headteacher, school staff and members of the governing body share a common goal of excellence through continued improvement. Teachers and other adults working in the school demonstrate their commitment to providing high-quality education by striving to improve even the best lessons.  School leaders and the governing body have an accurate and comprehensive knowledge of the school’s strengths and areas for development. This is because they check the work of the school frequently and thoroughly. As a result, plans to improve the work of the school are highly focused on the most important aspects that need further development.  Training for teachers and other adults is strongly linked to the school’s plans for improvement. For example, school leaders have established that the teaching of reading needs strengthening and have already provided new resources and training for key staff which has started the

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The leadership and management are outstanding

process of improvement.  Training and support for new staff are of high quality. The comprehensive induction programme ensures that all staff use the school’s behaviour management and communication systems consistently well. This ensures that all staff make a significant contribution to pupils’ learning from the start of their appointment at the school.  School leaders’ checks of teachers’ performance in the classroom are used very well to identify the need for further support to improve the quality of teaching still further. As a result, new teachers rapidly develop their specialist skills and knowledge. This has ensured that the high quality of teaching has been maintained despite changes in staff since the previous inspection.  Pupils are taught lessons about a broad, balanced and highly appropriate range of subjects. There is a very strong focus on developing their communication skills. The outstanding

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The leadership and management are outstanding

curriculum is very well matched to their age and level of development. For example, in the sixth form, pupils are able to choose some of the subjects that they study.  The school’s specialism in the performing arts provides pupils with a unique range of opportunities which make an exceptional contribution to their strong spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and enables the school to show that it actively works to prevent discrimination. They particularly enjoy singing and acting, especially where they have contributed to performances at major London venues in conjunction with pupils from other schools. The work in these lessons and after-school activities also provides chances for pupils to improve their reading skills, although this is not always comprehensively recorded.  The school provides a range of helpful support for parents and carers who value being welcomed into the school. However, school leaders recognise that parents and carers are not

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The leadership and management are outstanding

always consistently provided with tailored advice about how to help their child improve their reading skills.  Arrangements for keeping pupils safe are comprehensive and meet current requirements.  The local authority provides light touch support for this outstanding school.  The governance of the school:  The governing body has a good range of experienced members who provide rigorous support and challenge to school leaders and use their expertise well. They have a comprehensive understanding of the current quality of teaching and how this has improved through training and support from both the headteacher’s reports and their own regular visits to the school. They have a full and accurate understanding of how well pupils, including those eligible for pupil premium funding, achieve at school and how well they should be doing. They also recognise that they need to implement even more rigorous processes for checking that there

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The leadership and management are outstanding

are strong links between teachers’ pay and their performance. The governing body ensures that its members have an appropriate range of skills to ensure they can support and challenge the school effectively by participating regularly in training courses.

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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 126160 Local authority West Sussex Inspection number 403808

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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 special Age range of pupils 2–19 Gender of pupils Mixed Gender of pupils in the sixth form Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 79 Of which, number on roll in sixth form 21 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Helen Crooks Headteacher Lesley Dyer Date of previous school inspection 5–6 May 2010 Telephone number 01403 266215 Fax number 01403 270109 Email address office@queenelizabeth2.w-sussex.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

telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way. To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’.

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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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