Cambian Beverley School

Cambian Beverley School Units 19-20, Priory Road Industrial Estate, Beverley HU17 0EW

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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 Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Leaders ensure that the school consistently meets the independent school standards.  The headteacher is very passionate, enthusiastic and highly knowledgeable. She is determined to improve the life chances of all pupils who attend the school.  Leaders ensure that teachers and learning support assistants know pupils extremely well. This helps them to ensure that learning is appropriate to pupils’ individual needs and enables pupils to make good progress.  Regular assessments take place. Teachers use the information from these assessments and from pupils’ work to ensure that pupils successfully build on their prior knowledge and learning.  The headteacher, along with her dedicated staff team, has overhauled the curriculum. Based on a thematic approach, work is interesting, related to real life and helps pupils to realise that education is valuable. Leaders are keen to continue to expand the range of qualifications

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

on offer and improve the facilities for teaching them.  Over time and from low starting points, most pupils make good and better progress. Pupils complete work and take qualifications that support them in securing their next steps when they leave the school.  The quality of social, moral, spiritual and cultural development is a real strength of the school for the vast majority of pupils. The headteacher’s participation charter ensures that pupils receive a wide range of education about life in modern Britain and beyond.  Parents and carers said that pupils attending the school are making progress and improving. They said, and pupils spoken with agreed, that pupils are safe in school.  Pupils’ behaviour and attendance improve over time, and improve more the longer pupils are at the school. School leaders agree, however, that for a very small number of pupils, there is more work to do to improve both attendance and

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

behaviour further, particularly in securing clinical services for social, emotional and mental health support.

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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 pupils’ behaviour and attendance further by continuing to develop and implement strategies for improvement for the small number of pupils who need additional support.  Further develop the provision for clinical services, so that all pupils, including those who are referred by the local authority, access the social, emotional and mental health support that they need.  Develop the curriculum further by improving the teaching facilities and expanding the range of qualifications available to pupils.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 Leaders ensure that the school meets the independent school standards (ISS) consistently.  The headteacher effectively models her vision and expectations for the school. Staff share her vision and work collaboratively to ensure that pupils have every opportunity to achieve and reverse their previous cycles of non-attendance, exclusions and poor progress.  The headteacher creates a culture where everyone can achieve. Through one-to-one mentoring, pupils have many opportunities to discuss their worries and seek support and advice. Pupils said that they trust the staff at school.  Following her promotion from deputy headteacher, two years ago, the headteacher overhauled the curriculum. Pupils now study a wide range of subjects via a thematic approach that links to real life. In addition, the headteacher’s participation charter ensures that a wide range of extra-curricular opportunities complement the taught

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

curriculum and further develop pupils’ skills.  The headteacher has an accurate view of the quality of education in the school. She evaluates the provision and identifies appropriate actions for improvement.  An effective system for performance management is in place, which links teachers’ targets to whole-school and company development priorities. The headteacher closely monitors the quality of teaching and learning and identifies appropriate development opportunities for staff. Through this, teaching continues to develop and the school continues to improve.  Parents, carers, children’s home managers and the local authority speak very highly of the work of the school. They said that over the past two years, levels of communication have increased and they are fully informed. Through this collaborative approach, pupils feel well looked after.

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Governance

 The school does not have a governing body. There is an executive board, which delegates governance responsibility to the director of education.  The director of education is knowledgeable and skilled and ably challenges and supports the headteacher to improve the school.  There is recognition that the curriculum offer, while developing, is somewhat limited by the size of the school and current facilities. The director of education is working closely with the headteacher to explore options to improve this.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.  The safeguarding policy is compliant with the latest guidance from the Secretary of State and is available to parents via the school website or on request.  Staff at Cambian Beverley School know the pupils exceptionally well. They are well aware of the signs to look out for if pupils are facing or having trouble. Staff are well trained in child protection.  The headteacher is the designated safeguarding lead. Her meticulous approach to safeguarding ensures that responses to concerns are timely and appropriate. She ensures that she explores all avenues when finding the appropriate support for pupils. Staff work very well with external agencies to keep pupils safe.  The school premises are well maintained, and there are appropriate risk assessments. Any repairs happen swiftly.  Staff are well aware of their roles and responsibilities to keep pupils safe and spoke

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Safeguarding

confidently about how they can report any worries or concerns they have about pupils.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

 Teachers plan lessons carefully to ensure that they challenge each pupil appropriately. Work in pupils’ books shows that, where needed, pupils receive additional support and challenge.  Teachers use information about the progress pupils make to inform their planning. This means that pupils have opportunities to build on their prior knowledge and learning and develop their skills further.  Learning support assistants and teachers work exceptionally well with pupils. Through careful questioning, they support pupils to think and work things out for themselves. Pupils appreciate their help.  Teachers pay extra attention to developing activities that will interest pupils. For example, in English, a teacher wrote to pupils about school rewards and, in mathematics, teachers use resources very well to stimulate thinking.  External coaches provide skill development opportunities for pupils in a wide range of

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

sports and activities including trampolining and tennis. Pupils enjoy these sessions, which take place at various off-site venues.  The majority of work in pupils’ books indicates that they make at least good progress over time. However, when pupils are absent, some gaps remain in their learning as they often fail to catch up on the work they miss.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.  The development of the participation charter ensures that pupils receive teaching about a wide range of topics from extremism and child sexual exploitation to managing emotions and money. Pupils contribute well to debate and discussions and learn to listen to the points of view of other people. In a session to discuss sexuality, with an outside speaker, pupils listened and considered other perspectives well. One pupil commented, ‘People are different and other people need to deal with it.’  Pupils have opportunities to find out about and develop respect for other faiths, for example, by learning about the Muslim faith and visiting a local mosque.  Pupils feel safe in the school. They are confident that staff will help them. Pupils who do not like to talk about their issues said that, even though they are reluctant to talk, if they

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Personal development and welfare

wanted to, staff would listen.  Most pupils take pride in their work. Pupils said that they recognise the value of education and know that they will receive support to move on to further education, employment or training.  Pupils develop their confidence and skills while attending this school. The longer they attend, the more their confidence and self-esteem grow, and this helps them to become learners who are more successful.  While leaders ensure that they work exceptionally well with external agencies, they recognise that there is further work to do to ensure that all pupils, including those referred by the local authority, have access to clinical services that Cambian provides.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils requires improvement.  The longer pupils attend the school, the more their behaviour and attendance improve. The records leaders keep about behaviour and attendance support this clearly. As a result of leader’s secure actions to develop the provision for improving pupils’ behaviour, extremes of behaviour are reducing. For example, the number of recorded incidents has decreased by over 100, when compared to the previous academic year. For the majority of pupils, leaders ensure rapid and sustained improvements to behaviour.  Some pupils improve their attendance dramatically, for example, from previously refusing to attend school to fully attending. However, while the majority of pupils do improve and sustain their attendance, a small number of pupils do not improve their attendance rapidly enough.  Despite these improvements, leaders agree that there is further work to do to with some

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Behaviour

pupils to ensure that they attend more and value their education more.  During the inspection, there were some incidents of low-level disruption, which pupils said happen frequently. Most pupils however, choose to ignore the disruption and continue with their work.  Some pupils’ use of foul language is too frequent. Staff are quick to challenge this, and some pupils self-correct and quickly apologise and select a different word to express their feelings.

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Outcomes for pupils Good

 From their very low starting points, often resulting from pupils having been out of education for significant periods, most pupils make good and better progress over time.  Over time, pupils improve their reading skills. The small school library contains books that were purchased following consultation with pupils. Pupils take books home and are further developing their skills and interest in reading.  Pupils work towards a range of qualifications, which they take as soon as they are ready to do so. This results in pupils building a portfolio of qualifications, which helps them to progress to further education, employment or training.  Most pupils progress to a college course that matches their ability and career aspirations. This is because school leaders ensure that pupils access a wide range of careers advice and visit colleges to help them decide what to do.

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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

Website www.cambiangroup.com/cambiangroup.aspx

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School details

Email address education@cambiangroup.com

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Information about this school

 Cambian Beverley School caters for pupils who have social, emotional and mental health issues and challenging behaviour. The school is registered to admit up to 16 pupils from age eight to 18. Current pupils are aged 12 to 16.  The school occupies a small industrial unit close to the centre of Beverley.  Pupils can be referred to the school in any year group and at any time during the school year. Pupils are placed on part-time or full-time programmes that last for varying lengths of time.  All pupils currently attending the school have education, health and care plans or a statement of special educational needs.  Almost all pupils attending the school are of a White British background and speak English as their first language.  Since the previous inspection, there has been a change of headteacher and number of changes to the school staff.  The governance of the school is overseen by the board of directors for the Cambian

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Information about this school

Group. The director of education takes responsibility for the school.  The school is not currently using alternative education provision.  The school was last inspected in May 2015.

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Information about this inspection

 This inspection was carried out over two and a half days with half a day of notice.  The inspector toured the building both inside and outside.  The inspector observed teaching and learning in lessons, some jointly with the headteacher.  Meetings were held with the headteacher, the special educational needs coordinator (SENCo), teachers, learning support assistants, pupils and the director of education for Cambian.  The inspectors reviewed the work of pupils in all subjects across the curriculum.  Pupils’ behaviour in lessons and around the school was observed.  The inspector evaluated a range of documentation, including leaders’ evaluations of the school and development plans, admissions and attendance registers, policies, monitoring information, child protection and safeguarding information and all other documents and policies, as required as part of the independent school standards.  Inspectors considered the school’s evidence of communication with parents and

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Information about this inspection

stakeholders. There were no responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View. However, inspectors spoke with several parents, carers and representatives from the local authority.  Responses to Ofsted’s questionnaire for staff were also considered.

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Inspection team

Debbie Redshaw, lead inspector 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

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 and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspection team

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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

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