Cornfield School

Cornfield School 53 Hanworth Road, Redhill, Surrey RH1 5HS

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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 Good

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Leaders are ambitious for pupils. They ensure that vulnerable pupils are very well cared for and receive a good education. Girls feel ‘lucky’ to attend Cornfield School.  Teaching is good. Staff have good subject knowledge and exemplary relationships with pupils.  Pupils, including those with low starting points, make good progress in all subjects and exemplary progress in art and creative art hair design.  Safeguarding is effective. Staff and leaders are acutely aware of pupils’ vulnerabilities. Pupils trust adults and feel safe. Leaders have created a culture where staff diligently identify, record and report any concern regarding pupils’ well- being.  Pupils behave well, including those who have not always been able to control their feelings and emotions. Pupils who have not been successful in mainstream schools thrive at Cornfield.  Pupils’ personal development is outstanding. Pupils are incredibly well supported to be

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

positive about learning and themselves. As a result, pupils take pride in their work, their school and achieve well.  Sixth-form students are well prepared for life after school. They are taught well and make good progress.  Leaders and teachers are developing their approach to assessing pupils’ reading knowledge, skills and understanding. At present, performance information is not reliable or helpful.  Leaders have not responded well enough to the changing ways that local authorities issue additional pupil premium funding. Draft plans to spend the additional funding are not clear.  Leaders know and understand the independent school standards. As a result, they have ensured that all the standards are met.

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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 standards’) and associated requirements.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve leadership and management even further by ensuring that: – there is a clear plan detailing how additional pupil premium funding will be spent and the difference it will make – leaders, including the proprietor, carefully check that the additional funding is having a positive impact on disadvantaged pupils’ progress.  Improve the assessment of pupils’ progress in reading. Ensure that information teachers and leaders have can be used to help girls make even better progress in English.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 The headteacher wants the school to be the best it can be. She is ambitious for pupils and leads a committed, hardworking and caring staff team. The headteacher has created a ‘family’ feel within the school that staff, pupils and parents value.  Leaders know what the school does well and what can be even better. They make regular and detailed checks on the quality of teaching and learning. As a result, the management of staff performance is effective.  Leaders have thought carefully about the design of the curriculum. They have ensured a broad, balanced and engaging curriculum, despite the constraints of the school building. Physical education is offered off-site and responds to what girls are interested in. A good partnership with a local college has widened the curriculum offer to include motor mechanics and painting and decorating short courses. Consequently, girls get the widest possible range of vocational course experiences.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is a strength of the school. Well- planned schemes of work ensure that pupils develop a very clear understanding about other faiths and cultures through art, poetry and religious education. The development of pupils’ social skills is exemplary. As a result, pupils with frequent and sustained poor behaviour in previous schools do well at Cornfield. Pupils recognise and value the chance to ‘get back on track’.  Leaders, including those who manage the premises, have a good knowledge of the independent school standards. As a result, they have ensured that all the standards are met.  Local authorities who place children at Cornfield have changed the way they allocate pupil premium funding to the school. Leaders have not been quick enough to plan how to use this funding to further improve the progress that disadvantaged pupils make.

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Governance

 The proprietor knows, understands and meets her statutory responsibilities, including the requirement to keep pupils safe. She has a detailed oversight of the work of school leaders, particularly in relation to safeguarding. The proprietor is effective in holding leaders to account.  The proprietor is ambitious for the girls who attend Cornfield. School leaders provide detailed reports about the school’s effectiveness. As a result, the proprietor knows what the school does well and what it could do even better. For example, she has ensured that the headteacher is attending national training events to ensure a better understanding of how to plan, use and evaluate the pupil premium funding spend.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.  The school has a suitable safeguarding policy on its website. The proprietor, leaders and all adults know and understand the latest statutory guidance.  Leaders have created a culture where pupils are well listened to and respected. Pupils trust adults. Consequently, they willingly share concerns they have about their own and friends’ safety and well-being. Staff are well trained and meticulously record any concerns they have about pupils’ welfare.  The acting designated safeguarding lead is highly knowledgeable and effective. All concerns regarding pupils’ well-being are diligently recorded. There are close and effective working relationships with the police and social care. As a result, referrals to other agencies are detailed and swift.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

 Relationships between staff and pupils are exemplary. Staff are warm and respectful. Pupils value the positive impact that their relationships with adults have on their safety, well-being and learning.  Staff have good subject knowledge. They are clear with pupils about what they are learning and why.  Staff question pupils effectively. Staff make informed choices about when to ask questions that require pupils to deepen their thinking and refine their ideas and when they will accept short responses to deliberately closed questions.  Planned learning builds on what pupils know and can do. Work is appropriately challenging for the most able pupils.  Staff are not always consistent in how they approach common and repeated errors in pupils’ spelling and use of grammar, particularly in subjects other than English.  Reading assessments are not effective. Leaders and teachers know this. The over-reliance

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

on annual tests has meant that the information that teachers and leaders have at their disposal is unreliable and not helpful.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.  Cornfield has a significant positive impact on girls’ views of education and of what they can achieve. Girls who have not been successful or happy in other schools do well here.  Pupils feel a ‘trust and connection’ with staff and this plays a significant role in keeping pupils happy and safe in school. Pupils are able to share their thoughts about how the school and the curriculum could be improved even further.  Pupils take pride in their work and their school. Leaders have high expectations regarding school uniform, which pupils by and large respond to. Pupils’ work is well presented, and the school environment is bright, attractive and well-cared for by pupils and adults alike.  Leaders place great importance on developing pupils’ healthy bodies and healthy minds. Opportunities for physical exercise are ample. Pupils are given weekly opportunities to

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Personal development and welfare

plan, prepare and cook meals that are eaten together. Staff value these opportunities to further enhance the ‘family’ environment that the school works hard to create.  The health and safety of the pupils is given very careful consideration. The leader with responsibility for ensuring that the premises and associated policies meet the independent school standards is knowledgeable and diligent.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good.  Pupils behave well in lessons and around the school. Pupils recognise the significant improvements in their behaviour since they started at Cornfield. Pupils’ behaviour improves because their personal and social development is exemplary.  Leaders and staff have high expectations of pupils’ behaviour and conduct. Pupils on the whole rise to these. Over time, significant incidents of unwanted behaviour decrease and so do the number of exclusions.  Pupils with chronically low levels of attendance prior to joining Cornfield do now come to school more often. However, a large proportion of pupils remain persistently absent.

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Outcomes for pupils Good

 Pupils make good progress in English and mathematics, including the most able and those pupils with the lowest starting points.  Pupils make good progress in science, history and religious education.  Pupils make outstanding progress in art. Their art work is of a very high quality. Pupils also make very good progress within the creative arts hair design awards.  Pupils are well-prepared for life after Cornfield. Leaders and staff are acutely aware that girls can become too ‘cocooned’ in their small, single-sex school. The school has worked well with a local college to ensure that pupils have the confidence and experiences they need to succeed.  Over time, the proportion of pupils achieving a broader range of accredited qualifications has increased. As the curriculum has evolved, so have opportunities to gain qualifications within physical education, religious education and history.

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Sixth form provision Good

 Older students are fully integrated with key stage 3 and 4 pupils. The strengths in the school’s leadership and management apply to the sixth form. The leadership of the sixth form is good.  Teaching is good. Students are given sensitive support to ensure that they are well prepared for examinations that they may not have felt ready to take previously. As a result, older students make good progress in all subjects, including mathematics and English. Students’ basic errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar are not consistently addressed in subjects other than English.  The behaviour of students is good, including those who have not always been successful at managing their behaviour in their previous schools. Students’ levels of attendance vary widely.  The personal development of students is exemplary. Students receive clear and helpful careers advice and guidance. They are given a wide range of opportunities to experience

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Sixth form provision Good

college short courses and carefully consider their options. Consequently, more students are persevering with and completing their studies.  Staff ensure that students get valuable access to work experience. Students value the support and guidance they receive and know that if a placement does not work that staff will help them secure other opportunities.  Students are increasingly well prepared for life beyond Cornfield. An increasing proportion are staying on at college or securing employment, sometimes as a result of successful work experience placements.

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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

Gender of pupils in the sixth form Girls

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School details

Of which, number on roll in sixth form 6

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School details

Email address cornfieldschool@cornerways.org

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School details

Date of previous inspection 12–14 November 2013

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Information about this school

 Cornfield School opened in 2003. It is an all-girls independent school for pupils aged between 11 and 18 years of age. It is located in a residential area of Redhill, Surrey.  It is registered for up to 25 pupils. There are currently 20 on roll, aged between 11 and 18 years.  Almost all pupils have an education, health and care plan because of their social, emotional and mental health needs. Almost all pupils are looked after or disadvantaged. In September 2017, local authorities allocated additional pupil premium funding to the school.  All pupils have had periods of disrupted education.  The school makes use of a range of off-site venues for physical education and sports.  The school was last inspected in November 2013.  Pupils and students attend East Surrey College on Fridays.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed teaching and learning across the school and also evaluated pupils’ work in their books and folders.  Meetings were held with leaders, the proprietor and staff.  Inspectors considered the views of pupils through a series of informal meetings.  Parents’ and carers’ views were considered through a number of phone calls during the inspection.  A range of documents was examined, including the school’s self-evaluation, schemes of work and improvement plans. Information about safeguarding arrangements was checked, as were the single central record, risk assessments and a range of policies.  All the education independent school standards were checked during this inspection.

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Inspection team

Mark Cole, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Catherine Old Her Majesty’s 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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