Greenvale School

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 4234 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Mrs Lynne Haines Greenvale School Waters Road Catford London SE6 1UF

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Short inspection of Greenvale School

Following my visit to the school on 22 May 2018 with Joanna Jones, Ofsted Inspector, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be outstanding in January 2015.

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Short inspection of Greenvale School

This school continues to be outstanding.

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Short inspection of Greenvale School

The leadership team and governors have maintained the outstanding quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

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Short inspection of Greenvale School

Your leadership team has a clear understanding of the school’s strengths and areas necessary to support continued development. Since the last inspection, you have continued to build upon outstanding practice and have effectively enhanced the quality of education that is provided to the pupils.

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Short inspection of Greenvale School

There is a diverse ability range of pupils across the school and all pupils make progress with their learning and are challenged to achieve success. The school ethos is extremely child-centred, as evident through the clear use of differentiated curriculum pathways which have been created using pupils’ personalised learning needs. Across all three key stages, teaching is effective, as it takes into account the pupils’ individual needs alongside multi-therapy and specialist intervention support. Learning sessions cater for individual needs, and resources are well used to ensure inclusivity and accessibility.

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Short inspection of Greenvale School

The atmosphere across the school is welcoming, calm and purposeful. Staff know the pupils well and work with this knowledge to ensure that where behaviour might be of concern, de-escalation strategies and interventions are in place to best support the pupil to be able to self-regulate their behaviour as appropriate. In key stage 5, students were keen to speak to the inspectors and discuss their learning achievements. They were particularly proud of their participation and achievements in art and music programmes. Across the school pupils are happy and secure. This was echoed by parents and carers, who were very complimentary about the school and the support it offers to both the pupils and their families. Parents are happy with how well their children are encouraged to achieve, both in learning and in life skills.

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Short inspection of Greenvale School

Staff are very positive about the school and were clear through discussions that they are well supported with continuing professional development. This ensures that they are up to date with best practice strategies and interventions. Their training allows them to ensure that they are supporting the pupils to achieve their very best.

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Short inspection of Greenvale School

Governors are clear about their strategic responsibilities to ensure that the school moves forward and continues to sustain its outstanding provision. You are beginning a journey of expansion as a school, and governors are offering appropriate support and challenge to yourself and your team as this project begins.

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Short inspection of Greenvale School

You and your leadership team have ensured that safeguarding practice remains effective. The entire leadership team have designated safeguarding training and are clear of the systems needed to support the welfare of the children. The deputy headteacher is the designated safeguarding lead; however, it is clear that there is a strong team of support alongside her, with secure and transparent systems in place across the school to ensure that pupils are safe and protected. All training for staff is up to date and there are regular whole-school and class team updates. There is a designated governor for safeguarding, who regularly liaises with the school and designated lead to ensure that statutory practice is being followed. All necessary information about staff, volunteers and governors is recorded, and overall record- keeping of safeguarding is fully compliant.

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Short inspection of Greenvale School

Where there are attendance concerns, these are addressed effectively and sensitively. Outside agencies are used to support both pupils and their families. Recently, parent forums have been established and topics are presented which are relevant to ongoing support for pupils and their families.

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Short inspection of Greenvale School

The pupils held a student council meeting with an inspector and said how helpful adults were with any problems they might have. They were clear that they enjoy coming to school and benefit from the extra-curricular activities on offer, such as football and doing school jobs. Pupils feel safe and are happy at school.

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Short inspection of Greenvale School

The leadership team continues to ensure that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and all records are detailed and accurate.

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Inspection findings

 We agreed at the start of the inspection that we would look at the progress that pupils make from their starting points at Greenvale. We also agreed to see if there is effective monitoring of this progress across all key stages. At the moment, P levels are used, and the capturing of small steps progress is tracked using a very clear assessment and tracking system. Over the past year, new systems have been piloted to help the school collect data for pupils who have more complex needs.  Data is used by staff for their planning and for governors to appropriately challenge the senior leadership team. The school ensures that there is joint working with the local authority and partner schools so that school systems are robust and transparent. Resources are used well to support progress, including the use of symbols, Makaton, Braille and other approaches as appropriate to the personalised needs of each pupil. Pupils are proud of their learning achievements

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Inspection findings

and were happy to share their work efforts with inspectors. Achievements are celebrated through assemblies and displays across the school.  Due to the complex learning needs of pupils, the second area of the inspection focus was to look at the school’s curriculum programme to ensure that all pupils make good progress to move them on to their next steps of learning, including preparation for adult life. This is supported by a broad and balanced curriculum. The curriculum ensures that the diverse learning needs of pupils across all key stages are met. The curriculum is carefully planned, mapped and individualised for each pupil.  There is evidence of successful engagement from the school with parents and families. However, some families expressed that they would benefit from increased opportunities for forums around topics that are relevant to helping them to support their children, including sessions around supporting their

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Inspection findings

children through puberty and behaviour. This is something that the school could choose to expand upon to further increase its engagement with families and further extend curriculum and support opportunities across home and school.  The curriculum offer is enhanced through the school’s partnerships with other community organisations, which allows for increased opportunities for pupils’ engagement around sports, arts and music. There are also opportunities for work placement options in key stage 5, where some pupils are supported to extend their life and social skill development by preparing tables for a local church to host lunches for the elderly once a week. These enrichment activities afford chances for wider engagement with the local community, ensuring that skills to prepare for adult life are at the forefront of the curriculum offer.  The previous inspection report outcome was to ensure that the school increased

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Inspection findings

the range of accredited courses in the sixth form, with consideration of how this could help prepare students for adult life. Since the last inspection, you and your leadership team have expanded the range of accredited programmes on offer to the students, including the introduction of functional skills programmes for some. You have also increased the opportunities for students to engage with other schools and the local community, which has widened their social development opportunities. There has been an increase in student participation within theatre productions, and some students have contributed to rock band performances at the Royal Festival Hall. All of these additions have positively contributed to the students’ progress achievements.  In addition to increasing what is on offer, students are also encouraged to be more independent. Students in post-16 provision are able to choose across four

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Inspection findings

varied learning sessions in the afternoon. This allows students to have a voice in what they wish to learn. Moving on to post-18 provision, the school is very supportive of the students and their families. One hundred per cent of students from Greenvale went on to post-18 provision in 2017.  Over the course of the inspection day, through learning walks, discussion with the leadership team and other school staff, pupils and governors, it was energetically apparent that your school is a caring, supportive and purposeful learning environment.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:

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Next steps for the school

 parental engagement opportunities are strengthened across the school in order to have a positive impact on their children’s outcomes.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Lewisham. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

Inspectors met with you, other senior leaders, two governors, including the chair of the governing body, and members of the school council. Inspectors also met with the service manager for children with complex needs from the local authority. Inspectors spoke with a group of parents. Inspectors spoke with pupils across the day and met with a student group. Inspectors scrutinised a range of documentation, including that relating to arrangements for safeguarding, the school’s self-improvement plan and self-evaluation documents, minutes of meetings of the governing body, attendance data, curriculum information and information about pupils’ progress over time. Inspectors visited classrooms with senior leaders to gather evidence of teaching, learning and assessment. Inspectors considered nine responses to the staff questionnaire. Inspectors looked at published information on the school’s website.

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