Meath School

Meath School, Brox Road, Ottershaw, CHERTSEY, Surrey, KT16 0LF

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Inspection dates 02/03/2015 to 04/03/2015

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Overall effectiveness Outstanding 1

Outcomes for residential pupils Outstanding 1 Quality of residential provision and care Outstanding 1 Residential pupils’ safety Outstanding 1 Leadership and management of the residential provision Outstanding 1

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The residential provision is outstanding because

● This is an enabling school that lives up to its 'I can' motto. The leaders, managers and staff believe in the capacity of each child to make progress. Children's minds get infused with this 'I can' attitude and this has a tremendously positive impact on their engagement and learning. Staff have the skills to guide children to come closer to fulfilling their potential. The school is outstandingly effective at enabling children to find their voice and improve their communication skills. This unlocks their potential for relating, learning, understanding and development. They thrive and make extraordinary progress across all different aspects of their well-being. ● The school's exceptional results are underpinned by the fully embedded holistic, integrated and multi-professional approach to promoting positive outcomes for children. Professionals and parents work in close collaboration and remain unwaveringly focused

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The residential provision is outstanding because

on the individual child. Children receive expert, targeted, consistent and multi-faceted individual support of an excellent standard. ● The residential provision plays a significant part and makes an essential contribution to the tremendous progress that children make. While having wonderful experiences, children are skilfully guided by the residential staff to continue to learn and to develop their social, personal and learning skills outside of the day-school hours. ● This is a safe school that is highly effective at promoting safe and constructive behaviours in children. The behaviour of children during the inspection was exemplary. There have been no major accidents, incidents or safeguarding concerns during this inspection year. ● This is a school with a strong culture of learning and improvement. Examining the effectiveness of the practice and measuring children's progress is integral to all the

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The residential provision is outstanding because

school's activities. Leaders, managers and staff are always searching for the ways to refine their practice and have an even more powerful impact on the outcomes for children. Inspection Report Meath School, 02/03/2015 Page 2 of 13 ● This is a progressive and forward-looking school that achieves exceptional results and influences the developments in teaching, therapy and care. It has close links with the local maintained schools, the universities in the Great Britain and in the USA, and the global research-community. For the benefit of children outside of the school, the leaders spearhead and disseminate their highly effective model of working and the professional expertise and excellent practice that they have built on.

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Compliance with the national minimum standards for residential special schools

The school meets the national minimum standards for residential special schools Inspection Report Meath School, 02/03/2015 Page 3 of 13

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Information about this inspection

This inspection was carried out by one inspector, giving a short period of notice. The inspector had access to a wide range of records, observed many activities of daily life in the school and grounds and shared mealtimes with children. Interviews were conducted with the Principal, head of therapy, the governor with lead residential responsibility, premises manager, a range of staff and a visiting faith worker. Views of others including parents were also gathered including through on-line surveys. scrutiny of records.

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Inspection team

Seka Graovac Lead social care inspector Inspection Report Meath School, 02/03/2015 Page 4 of 13

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Information about this school

Meath School is a day and residential non-maintained primary special school. It fosters an integrated model of support that includes education, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and residential care. It provides for up to 75 pupils of either gender, aged 4 to 11 years, whose primary needs arise from severe and complex speech, language and communication difficulties.

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Information about this school

The school offers its residential service and an extended school day programme to all its pupils. In excess of 35 of them have accessed the residential provision over the last year. Two children stay Monday to Friday, while others participate in the planned overnight programme. The frequency of the overnight stays is agreed with the parents.

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Information about this school

The school is owned and managed by the children's communication charity called 'I Can'. It is situated in grounds of nine acres in the village of Ottershaw in Surrey. The residential accommodation is on the first floor of the main school building.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

● Review the quality of the records related to the risk management process and make any adjustments needed to bring it in line with the excellent record-keeping in the other areas of the provision. Inspection Report Meath School, 02/03/2015 Page 5 of 13

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Outcomes for residential pupils Outstanding

Children have developed a strong affiliation to the school and its residential provision. They have established emotionally warm, positive and trusting relationships with the staff members. They have named the residential part of the school, a 'fun house'. A parent told the inspector that her daughter absolutely adored the school and could not wait for the time to come for her to stay there overnight.

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Outcomes for residential pupils Outstanding

Children have a wonderful time while engaging together with their peers in a wide range of sporting, creative and relaxing activities. They develop friendships and feelings of comradery and belonging. This has a tremendously positive impact on their communication and social skills.

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Outcomes for residential pupils Outstanding

This progress is underpinned by their much improved self-awareness and self-regulation. Children are managing better their anxieties and frustrations related to their own limitations and those of others linked to not being able to always understand them. They have developed tolerance, patience, resilience, tenacity and determination to communicate effectively. They feel valued and know that their views and feelings count.

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Outcomes for residential pupils Outstanding

Children have found their voice. They are asserting and developing their choices, individuality and uniqueness in constructive ways. Equally, they are more able to listen to, hear and respect other children and adults. They are more accepting of themselves and others. They are more motivated and able to engage in learning and therapy.

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Outcomes for residential pupils Outstanding

Some children who previously used to isolate themselves from the group are now participating fully in group-activities. Those who used to be withdrawn have in many cases become initiators of a social contact. They seek interactions with others and develop curiosity, interest, focus and courage.

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Outcomes for residential pupils Outstanding

Being totally immersed in a signing-community has made them into fluent signers. Their signing and oral vocabulary have been extended and enriched. Some children who hardly ever said anything before, now use full sentences. An example of the excellent progress is a child who is now able to talk with their grandparents on the telephone.

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Outcomes for residential pupils Outstanding

Children's general cognition and understanding of social situations has grown so much that they enjoy jokes and some have developed a healthy dose of mischievous behaviour. One mother told the inspector that she was particularly proud of this, as she had worried that it would never happen.

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Outcomes for residential pupils Outstanding

Staff creatively harness any interactions and any activities, including those relating to daily living to enable children to make progress. For example, one mother shared with the inspector how thrilled she was to see her daughter being able to independently put her socks on, for the first time in her life. Other parents also reported how their children have found it easier to learn in the context of the residential school than at home.

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Outcomes for residential pupils Outstanding

Children very much enjoy having food at school. They have made remarkable progress regarding the development of good table manners and social interactions when eating together.

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Outcomes for residential pupils Outstanding

The inspector was impressed how children wanted to share things with her and make her feel welcomed and included. The school has enabled children to become more friendly, open and communicative. They were exceptionally polite and kind towards the inspector.

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Outcomes for residential pupils Outstanding

At night, staff read bed-time stories to children. They love this. While helping them to develop Inspection Report Meath School, 02/03/2015 Page 6 of 13 their vocabulary, creativity and imagination, this activity also provides them with a calm and meaningful end of the day. Overall, children sleep very well when they stay overnight at the school. This in turn, makes them alert, focused and more engaged with the methodical learning and therapy that they have in the classrooms.

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Outcomes for residential pupils Outstanding

Children have made extraordinary progress across all aspect of their well-being. They have gained skills for learning and skills for life. Their educational achievements are fantastic: the attainment across the school is well above the comparable national average in the key subjects. This includes mathematics, science and the most amazingly, taking into account their starting point, English language.

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Outcomes for residential pupils Outstanding

Their confidence and self-esteem have grown immensely. They are gradually learning to take increasing responsibility for themselves. This includes recognising what they need to do in order to maintain their health and safety. An example of this is the child who in the past, used to refuse medication. He is now asking for it at the right times and taking it regularly.

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Outcomes for residential pupils Outstanding

Children's personal care skills, motor-skills, mobility and life-skills have continued to develop and improve at a fast pace. The school prepares them well for the transition to secondary education and for the life ahead of them.

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Quality of residential provision and care Outstanding

The outstanding progress that children make is underpinned by the excellent collaboration amongst various professionals who work at the school. Children receive consistent support and holistic care of the highest standard. All professionals work together and around the individual child. They ensure that at all times, it is the child's uniqueness that remains at the centre of all their activities. The individual quality of the various aspects of the support that children receive across the school, such as care, therapy and education is excellent. However, it is the extra quality gained by the genuinely integrated approach that makes the school extraordinarily effective.

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Quality of residential provision and care Outstanding

In addition, the school works in a close partnership with families to promote skilled parenting and consistency of the best approach across all the environments that the child inhabits. The school's qualified social worker provides additional advice and support to the whole family.

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Quality of residential provision and care Outstanding

The assessments of the special and complex needs of each chid are detailed, comprehensive and incisive. Their induction to the residential service is managed with great sensitivity and care. If the child has any particular health needs, the school nurse ensures that the staff are competent to meet those needs when she is not around. Care staff and the nurse help in classrooms alongside teachers and therapists and vice versa. This means that all the staff across different professional roles get to know children in all school settings. This is complemented by the highly structured and target-based care planning.

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Quality of residential provision and care Outstanding

Children are very much involved in setting and agreeing their targets and are motivated to achieve them. Those targets are specific and measurable. They clearly link with the children's individual learning goals and therapeutic aims. Like everything else in this school, the reviews of children's progress are carried out jointly. In addition to the involvement of various professionals, the process involves parents and as much as possible, the children themselves. The school is highly effective at involving children and enabling them to express themselves, to be heard and to hear others.

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Quality of residential provision and care Outstanding

The promotion of diversity and equality in the school is outstanding. The excellent practice regarding promotion of British values is integral to all policies, procedures and practice. The practice is well planned, systematic, creative and imaginative and draws on the sources outside Inspection Report Meath School, 02/03/2015 Page 7 of 13 the school community. For example, during the inspection, some children went to visit a synagogue. This enabled them to have a direct experience of some aspects of the Jewish tradition. At the school assembly that was led by an external person to the school, the inspector observed excellent practice that encompassed jokes, puppetry, singing, watching an animated cartoon and Christian story-telling that focused on a particular moral message. Children receive lots of individual attention and spend time in small groups. The assemblies bring them all together to collectively learn about the ethos of the school and their country.

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Quality of residential provision and care Outstanding

The physical environment provides good multi-sensory stimulation, diverse range of toys and activities. There are many outside safe areas for children to play in, including a very well- equipped adventure play-ground in the woodland that belongs to the school. Staff also take children to the local recreational activities to facilitate their integration into the wider community. Staff view and use play as a learning and development opportunity for children. For example, they engage children in a 'jump ahead' programme that has been specifically devised to systematically facilitate the development of the motor skills.

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Quality of residential provision and care Outstanding

Children, parents and staff members who responded to the Ofsted survey consistently provided a very positive feedback about the school. Parents report that their children love staying overnight at the school. One parent told the inspector that they were delighted with the school. Another parent told the inspector that they trusted that the staff could not be faulted and that the whole provision was undoubtedly outstanding. Parents' responses to the school's own request for feedback on a summer holiday service included: 'Overall fantastic fun and out of classroom togetherness;' 'An amazing opportunity for the kids and welcome respite for the family;' and 'A chance for social inclusion in a friendship group.’

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Quality of residential provision and care Outstanding

A student who volunteers at the school said: 'This school blew my mind away: everything about it is absolutely amazing.' Other volunteers said that they felt exactly the same.

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Residential pupils’ safety Outstanding

The school has comprehensive safeguarding policies and procedures that appropriately link with the local authority's documentation. The management and staff have a high safeguarding awareness. They keep up to date with the issues affecting children in the modern world. There is a clear written guidance for staff to follow in case of a child going missing, or if there are any suspicions of abuse or safeguarding concern, including on-line safety, exposure to inappropriate material, grooming, sexual or any other form of exploitation or radicalisation of a child.

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Residential pupils’ safety Outstanding

According to the school's safeguarding log, the minor safeguarding concerns have been appropriately dealt with. The Local Authority Designated Officer confirmed to the inspector that no issues have been raised with them regarding the staff who work at the school. The log of accidents that is kept by the nurse revealed that there have been no major accidents. No child has gone missing.

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Residential pupils’ safety Outstanding

Excellent safeguarding practice is consistently implemented and is effective at keeping children safe. Suitably high staffing levels ensure the high levels of supervision of children. The health, safety and welfare of each child is constantly monitored with vigilance. This is done sensitively and in an unobtrusive manner. Children know that staff care for them. They are appropriately supported and taught how to keep safe. An example of this is teaching them the difference between the appropriate and inappropriate touching in different kinds of relationships.

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Residential pupils’ safety Outstanding

The school has a well-balanced approach to the risks inherent in growing-up. Protective strategies and excellent practice are in place to enable children to manage the risks safely. For example, staff work with children individually through an e-safety agreement. This ensures that they are enabled to use the on-line resources safely. Another example is how the staff members Inspection Report Meath School, 02/03/2015 Page 8 of 13 respond to being touched by children or expressing a need for affection. This is an emotionally warm school with clear and consistently kept boundaries.

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Residential pupils’ safety Outstanding

The school's written policy for countering bulling includes racism, homophobic and cyber bullying. There is a strong anti-bullying culture that involves enabling children themselves to be aware, to know how to respond, to share any significant information and to ask for support when they need it. Staff support children exceptionally well to become more self-aware and to develop reflective and creative thinking. Staff consistently and effectively facilitate the development of emotional resilience, self-responsibility, self-regulation and independence in children.

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Residential pupils’ safety Outstanding

Parents have full confidence in residential staff and trust the whole school. They have consistently expressed this through the Ofsted on-line survey, in their discussions with the inspector and as part of the school's own quality assurance processes. Talking about the residential staff's skills, one parent told the inspector that the residential staff were unflappable and could deal effectively with any issue. Another person highlighted the proactive approach to ensuring the safety of children being behind the excellent safeguarding at the school.

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Residential pupils’ safety Outstanding

Like their parents, children have developed a deep-seated sense of being safe when they are at school. Feeling safe and relaxed in their environment opens them to exploration, learning and development. They know that it is fine to make a mistake and that they would be supported to do better next time.

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Residential pupils’ safety Outstanding

The school favours a positive approach to the management of children's behaviour. Children almost constantly receive acknowledgment and praise. Those children who behave in challenging ways have written behaviour management plans that are jointly agreed amongst the professionals and with the parents. Those plans are implemented consistently and with great impact. There have been no major sanctions since the last inspection. The log of physical interventions demonstrates that they have been used appropriately: staff intervened in skilled ways, for good reasons and in exceptional circumstances.

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Residential pupils’ safety Outstanding

This log also clearly shows the tremendous progress that some children have made at leaving destructive behaviours behind and adopting positive behaviours instead. An example of this is the child who joined this school last year. In order to prevent either him or others around him getting hurt, the staff members physically intervened 15 times in April and May 2014. None of the interventions since May 2014 relate to this child. Instead of biting, kicking and scratching, he now clearly expresses himself in words and enjoys being and playing with other children. He spontaneously initiated verbal communication with the inspector on a number of occasions. On one occasion, he expressed the concern that she was the only one without a balloon and asked the staff member to give her one. He also made sure that the inspector was given a choice of colour. He presented as a friendly, polite, obliging and a particularly sweet and caring child.

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Residential pupils’ safety Outstanding

The school provides a secure and safe environment, physically and emotionally. The physical environment is kept safe through rigorous and regular health and safety checks.

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Residential pupils’ safety Outstanding

However, the written risk assessments regarding the environment, the activities that children undertake and the individual children with the identified increased risks do not always give justice to the school's excellent actual safeguarding practice. Those records also do not compare well with the exceptionally high standard of the record keeping in the other areas of the school's documentation. This is an area for review and further improvement.

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Leadership and management of the residential provision Outstanding

The school has visionary and highly effective leaders and managers. They bring a vast amount of knowledge and expertise to their life-long passion, which is to enable children with Inspection Report Meath School, 02/03/2015 Page 9 of 13 communication difficulties to grow and fulfil their potential. They have brought together speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, education and medical and social care into a genuinely integrated and exceptionally effective model of provision. The professionals work together to consistently remove any barriers to the child's progress and to open the channels for their communication, learning and development.

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Leadership and management of the residential provision Outstanding

The school has a strong feel of being a caring community gathered around the children who need this specialist help. The nurturing ethos pervades all school's activities. The staff practice embodies the values and models positive relationships to children. This has an impact on the emotions, interactions and communication of children. They become committed themselves to engage in building positive relationships and contributing to the school community. They communicate, learn and grow.

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Leadership and management of the residential provision Outstanding

Within the school's model which sees collaboration as crucial, the residential provision makes an essential contribution to the extraordinary progress that children make across their welfare and development.

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Leadership and management of the residential provision Outstanding

The residential provision is efficiently organised and runs smoothly. The permanent care staff are highly skilled and have many years of experience of working at this school. They receive comprehensive training and high quality guidance, support and supervision. The maturity of their knowledge is supplemented well by the enthusiasm and questioning attitudes of students who volunteer full time at the school. The students receive detailed and comprehensive induction and training. They 'soak' in the school's atmosphere and excellent practice. After working for a year at the school, they become (informally) 'international ambassadors' for the integrated approach to enabling children to learn and grow. They take their experiences, knowledge and skills to their home-continent, the USA.

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Leadership and management of the residential provision Outstanding

The staff members across their different roles are utterly dedicated to the school and to achieving its purpose. The school has a very stable staff team, as the staff retention is very high. Many staff say that they love working at the school. Some professionals told the inspector that this was their 'dream job'. Staff are working industriously together and can see the positive difference their work is making in the lives of the children and their families. This reinforces the staff's motivation to continue to place high expectations on the quality on their own work. Together with the leaders and managers, they continue to drive the practice forward. The school tests the boundaries of what is possible when working with children who have communication difficulties within a complex interplay of other special needs. All staff are passionately committed to instilling in children the 'I can' attitude and directing them towards growth.

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Leadership and management of the residential provision Outstanding

The leaders and managers systematically monitor and measure the outcomes for children in relation to the specific approach undertaken. This analysis examines what is working and what is not working well for a particular child. The findings are used to ensure that the practice is fine- tuned for the best impact. This way of thinking is threaded throughout different aspects of the school's provision.

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Leadership and management of the residential provision Outstanding

The school's rigorous monitoring processes include a close oversight by the governing body. The self-evaluation is stringent, accurate and consultative. It is complemented by the regular evaluations made by the independent visitor.

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Leadership and management of the residential provision Outstanding

The residential provision meets all and exceeds by far the great majority of the national minimum standards. It has been consistently judged outstanding, since Ofsted started inspecting it.

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Leadership and management of the residential provision Outstanding

The leaders and managers are highly inspiring, competent and enabling individuals who are keen to extend the effective practice outside of the school's grounds. In addition to providing residential placements for over-sees students, the school has extensive relationships with the Inspection Report Meath School, 02/03/2015 Page 10 of 13 British universities. The Principal contributes to the future teachers' training. Through this role, she facilitates teachers' better understanding of the special needs relating to complex communication difficulties. The school also has close connections with the local mainstream schools.

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Leadership and management of the residential provision Outstanding

In a wider context, the school is highly committed to a research-based practice and to participating in the development of the knowledge within a wider professional community. An example of this is the recently published article in a professional circular called 'Child Language, Teaching and Therapy.' The research regarding the effectiveness of the use of semantic therapy was carried out at this school. The school also took part in the recent project titled 'My life at school'. This project was run by the Office of the Children's Commissioner to bring more understanding to the experience of children and young people with special educational needs in residential special schools. Inspection Report Meath School, 02/03/2015 Page 11 of 13

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Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding A school which provides an exceptional quality of care and significantly exceeds minimum requirements. Grade 2 Good A school which provides a high quality of care that exceeds minimum requirements. Grade 3 Adequate A school which meets minimum requirements but needs to improve the quality of care it provides. Grade 4 Inadequate A school where minimum requirements are not met and the quality of care has serious weaknesses. Inspection Report Meath School, 02/03/2015 Page 12 of 13

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School details

Unique reference number 125478 Social care unique reference number SC013925 DfE registration number 936/7063

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School details

This inspection was carried out under the Children Act 1989, as amended by the Care Standards Act 2000, having regard to the national minimum standards for residential special schools.

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Type of school

Number of boarders on roll 35 Gender of boarders Mixed Age range of boarders 4 to 11 Headteacher Mrs Janet Dunn Date of previous boarding inspection 03/03/2014 Telephone number 01932 872302 Email address meath@meath-ican.org.uk Inspection Report Meath School, 02/03/2015 Page 13 of 13 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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Type of school

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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Type of school

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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Type of school

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,

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Type of school

please 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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Type of school

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

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