Gloucester House, The Tavistock Children's Day Unit

Gloucester House, The Tavistock Children’s Day Unit 33 Daleham Gardens, London NW3 5BU

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Outstanding

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The headteacher, well supported by the proprietor, directors, steering group, school leaders and staff, has taken successful steps to improve the school since the last inspection.  Teaching, learning and assessment are good. Teachers plan interesting activities that enable pupils to achieve well. However, teaching does not always challenge the most able pupils to achieve their best.  Pupils make strong progress across most subjects. However, they make slower progress in writing for a range of reasons, including teachers not providing them with sufficient opportunities to write longer pieces of work.  Pupils behave exceptionally well. Through excellent care and support from staff, pupils learn how to relax and control their emotions so that they achieve well.  Pupils enjoy coming to school and their attendance is significantly better than in their previous schools.  Staff work very effectively with pupils with

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

complex needs because they are highly skilled at managing pupils’ challenging behaviour. This has ensured that pupils behave exceptionally well, feel safe and make great strides in their personal development.  Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is a strength of the school. They gain a good understanding of how people from different cultures contribute to life in modern Britain.  All safeguarding and child protection procedures meet requirements and a culture of safety helps to keep pupils and staff safe.  Governance is effective. The steering group are increasingly confident in holding leaders to account for the work of the school.  Leaders, the steering group and staff do not have full information about pupils’ progress in subjects other than English, mathematics, personal and social development to inform their decisions.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The school meets the requirements of the schedule to the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014 (‘the independent school standards’) and associated requirements.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve leadership and management and the quality of teaching so that pupils make substantial progress by ensuring that: – the school’s assessment system contains a broad enough range of information to enable leaders, staff and directors to check accurately pupils’ progress across a range of subjects – teachers provide more opportunities for pupils to write at length – teachers provide more challenge for all pupils, particularly the most able.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 The headteacher, supported well by directors and staff, has overseen significant changes since the previous inspection. Since that time, the number of pupils on roll has risen and the age range has increased. To ensure that the school continues to meet pupils’ needs well, the headteacher has expanded and reorganised the leadership team. Working closely with staff, she has brought about improvements in teaching, pupils’ achievement and behaviour, and has ensured that all the independent school standards are met. The headteacher is fully aware of what the school still needs to do to secure outstanding provision.  The headteacher, senior and middle leaders have established a culture of high expectations where pupils feel safe and secure. Effective teaching has enabled pupils who had lost interest in study to feel valued, make good progress and to behave very well. Leaders acknowledge that teaching needs to be improved even further to ensure that all

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

pupils, including the most able, make substantial progress.  Staff are given many opportunities to develop their skills and knowledge. Effective training and professional development is tailored to their individual needs and stages of their careers. This has helped to improve the quality of teaching and to extend their experience by taking on new responsibilities. Leaders and directors have ensured that effective systems for the appraisal of staff are in place.  An effective curriculum helps pupils develop their communication, literacy and numeracy skills. Exciting subjects such as French, well-being and yoga enable pupils to develop additional skills and interests. A range of clubs is available, including break-dancing, games, and music and movement sessions. These activities, together with the annual residential trip, help pupils to confront their own fears, develop their social skills, improve their confidence and self-esteem and become more independent.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is promoted well through a wide range of subjects and visits to places of interest in London and locally. These outings, together with the broader curriculum, enable pupils to understand how people from different cultures and backgrounds contribute to life in modern Britain. The marking of festivals from different religions around the world provides pupils with many opportunities to reflect on their feelings and behaviour.  In the school’s own surveys, parents expressed very positive views about the difference that the school makes to their children’s attitudes and behaviour.  Pupils receive helpful and effective careers advice and guidance. Older pupils take part in interesting work-experience placements, ranging from a bus garage to a restaurant. Last summer, all pupils took part in enterprise week. Pupils set up their own classroom shop

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

and designed business cards in preparation for selling different foods and drinks. Such activities help broaden pupils’ understanding about their options in the world of work and their progression into it.  Leaders receive high-quality external support and advice from specialist advisers and consultants, which have ensured that the school continues to improve.  The school’s assessment system provides detailed information about how well individual pupils are achieving in English, mathematics, personal and social development. However, it provides limited detail and analysis about pupils’ progress in other subjects. Leaders and governors have identified the need for more information summarising pupils’ achievement in subjects across the curriculum.

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Governance

 Governance is effective.  Membership of the steering group is drawn from a wide field of experience and professional expertise, including education, finance, local government and medicine. There is also a parent representative.  The steering group works closely with leaders to ensure that the school continues to grow and improve. They visit the school often to monitor its work and share their findings to leaders. They produce short reports that are discussed by the rest of the governing body. This ensures that they have an accurate view of the school’s performance.  Directors oversee the school’s system for performance management. They are actively involved in ensuring that any decisions about salary increases for staff are based on secure evidence that is linked firmly to pupils’ progress.  Directors are increasingly confident in challenging senior leaders about the school’s performance. They acknowledge that they are not provided with regular summaries of

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Governance

pupils’ progress in all academic subjects and so do not have a full picture of the school’s performance.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.  Safeguarding and the safety of pupils are priorities in the school. Staff have a thorough understanding of the most up-to-date guidance, attend regular training and use it well to remain vigilant and alert to any concerns arising about individual pupils.  High levels of staff supervision in the school, as well as on trips and visits, help to keep pupils safe.  Leaders and directors know the risks faced by the pupils and have put in place effective strategies to support them. Strong partnership working with clinicians, fully integrated into the staff team, enable pupils to receive additional assessment and mental health support. This helps pupils to devise effective strategies for regulating their emotions so that they can quickly resume their learning.  Where pupils display signs of unsafe behaviour, plans are agreed between the pupil, staff and family to ensure everyone’s safety. When there are concerns about a pupil, swift

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Safeguarding

action is taken. This includes offering additional school support and making referrals to external agencies.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

 Teaching across the school is consistently good, which ensures that pupils make good progress. The headteacher, together with senior and middle leaders, has established a positive atmosphere for learning and clear expectations of pupils’ behaviour and attitudes to work.  Teachers plan interesting activities designed to improve pupils’ reading, communication and numeracy skills. For example, during the inspection, older pupils were preparing to make chicken with rice and a cheesecake. They read the instructions from the recipe, measured and weighed the ingredients and calculated the amount of time the dishes needed to be baked in the oven. Because of the trusting relationships and excellent care and support from the teacher, pupils were able to make a successful product as well as improve their basic skills.  Throughout the school, pupils have regular opportunities to develop their literacy skills.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

For example, pupils used a range of persuasive language to extend their answers, both orally and in writing. However, opportunities for pupils to write at length, in a range of genres, are limited. This reduces the pupils’ rates of progress in developing their writing skills. Leaders acknowledge that more work is needed in this area and are introducing strategies to address this.  Mathematics teaching is well planned to develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding of skills and concepts. Their skills are frequently applied to their work-related learning, for example, to enterprise and cooking activities.  The highly successful work of staff who provide a range of therapeutic services has helped pupils to reduce their feelings of anxiety and frustration. The team has made a strong contribution to improving pupils’ attitudes to learning and communication skills.  Teachers’ management of pupils’ behaviour is excellent. Pupils understand the

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

expectations of their behaviour and are rewarded for meeting them. Occasional incidents of challenging behaviour are skilfully managed by staff, who use effective methods to calm pupils so that they can continue with their learning.  Overall, good teaching motivates pupils to learn well. However, sometimes, activities do not make sufficient demands to enable all pupils, especially the most able, to make substantial progress.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.  When they arrive, pupils are quickly helped to accept the school’s high expectations. This gives them the confidence to become actively involved in their studies.  Regular participation in sports and physical activities makes a strong contribution to pupils’ well-being and to their physical and emotional development.  Throughout the week, pupils have many opportunities to reflect on their learning with staff. This activity is very beneficial in improving pupils’ self-esteem and helping them to understand which strategies help them to learn successfully.  Pupils feel, and are, safe in the school. They know how to stay safe online, and that staff are always there to help and care for them. As a result, bullying is very rare.  The assessment of risk for all activities, including trips, residential visits and training away

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Personal development and welfare

from the school site, helps to keep pupils safe both in and out of school.  Parents and staff and who communicated with the inspector, or who completed the school’s own surveys, stated that the school is a safe place. There were no concerns raised by parents or staff regarding the pupils’ safety.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.  Before they arrive at Gloucester House School, many pupils have experienced significant personal challenges in their lives. Because of the school’s high expectations and excellent levels of care and support, relationships between staff and adults are very positive and respectful. Pupils behave well both inside and out of classrooms.  Pupils attend very regularly. They thoroughly enjoy the many exciting activities on offer to them each day. Attendance is very good.  Any incidents of challenging behaviour are dealt with professionally, safely and effectively. Situations can arise when pupils feel anxious, frustrated or overwhelmed by something that is different or unexpected. Staff display high levels of patience, care and sensitivity in managing these outbursts successfully. The use of physical intervention is closely documented and monitored. These strategies ensure that pupils are helped to recover

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Behaviour

calm dispositions so that they are ready to continue with their learning.  For those pupils who attend training away from the school site, there are effective arrangements for checking their attendance, punctuality, behaviour and safety.

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Outcomes for pupils Good

 All pupils are taught in mixed-age classes and teaching groups are small. For these reasons, information about achievement needs to be interpreted with caution, as analyses of trends or comparisons with national results are likely to be misleading.  Pupils enter the school with large gaps in their education. This is often due to their poor attitudes to learning, erratic attendance, challenging behaviour and communication difficulties.  Scrutiny of pupils’ work, photographs, project files, visits to classrooms and reports to parents show that, overall, pupils make good progress over time.  Overall, pupils from different backgrounds, make strong gains in literacy and numeracy because they are well taught. Pupils make particularly strong progress in their reading and speaking skills so that they become confident in expressing themselves.  All pupils who left the school in the last 12 months went on to maintained special schools

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Outcomes for pupils Good

or mainstream schools.  In personal development sessions, pupils learn the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. In support of this work, the school ensures that pupils have a choice of healthy and nutritious meals at lunchtimes, and that exotic fruits are available on ‘Funky Fruit Friday’.  Those who attend off-site training make good progress in their sports and physical fitness courses.  Pupils achieve well in a range of areas of the curriculum and make strong gains in their personal skills. For instance, they work well together in science or when working cooperatively while cooking. They read regularly, follow recipes and develop independent skills for living.  Pupils make slower progress in writing than in other subjects because of a range of reasons that include not having sufficient opportunities to write at length. In addition, not all pupils, including the most able, are set challenging enough tasks to ensure

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School details

This inspection was carried out under section 109(1) and (2) of the Education and Skills Act 2008, the purpose of which is to advise the Secretary of State for Education about the school’s suitability for continued registration as an independent school.

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School details

Type of school Other independent special school

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School details

Proprietor The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust Chair Paul Burstow

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School details

Email address gloucesterhouse@tavi-port.nhs.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 11−13 February 2014

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Information about this school

 Gloucester House, The Tavistock Children’s Day Unit, is an independent special school for boys and girls with social, emotional and mental health needs. It provides both a health and education service. It is located close to the Tavistock Clinic in the London Borough of Camden, but serves nine London boroughs.  All the pupils are referred by local authorities. The school is registered for up to 21 pupils aged from five to 14 years. There are 19 pupils on roll, each of whom has a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care plan. There are more boys than girls. Most pupils have had a very disrupted previous education and have not attended school for significant periods of time.  All pupils have previously been involved with the local child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) because of their social, emotional and mental health needs. All pupils at Gloucester House receive CAMHS support as part of the integrated provision from

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Information about this school

education and mental health staff. One in five children is looked after by the local authority.  Around two thirds of pupils are from minority ethnic backgrounds, with the remainder being White British.  Off-site training is made available for pupils to extend their learning experiences. The school offers the following activities: – sport and physical education at the Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre, 1 Adelaide Road, Swiss Cottage, London NW3 3NF – badminton at the Rec, Fleet Road, Hampstead, London NW3 2QG – tennis at The Globe Tennis Club, 190A, Haverstock Hill, London NW3 2AL.  The school was last inspected in January 2014, when it was judged to be outstanding.  The school meets the independent school standards for what it must publish on its website.  The school aims to provide ‘pupils with a holistic education that enables them to achieve positive outcomes that prepare them well for their future. Leaders also hope that children

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Information about this school

and their families will enjoy their time at Gloucester House and leave with positive memories.’

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Information about this inspection

 This full standard inspection took place with one day’s notice.  The inspector observed teaching and learning in all classes jointly with the headteacher. He spoke to pupils informally throughout the inspection.  There were no responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire for parents, Parent View. The inspector spoke with one parent and received two text comments. He also considered the 21 responses to the staff questionnaire.  The inspector held discussions with the headteacher, staff members and two directors, including the chair. He also spoke to two external consultants by telephone.  The inspector reviewed documents and policies, including those related to safeguarding, to check the school’s compliance with the independent school standards. He scrutinised pupils’ books and the school’s information about pupils’ attainment and progress.

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Inspection team

David Scott, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector guidance ‘Raising concerns and making a complaint about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.gov.uk/government/publications/complaints-about-ofsted . 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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Inspection team

Parent View 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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Inspection team

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.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted .

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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