Bradshaw Farm Independent School

Bradshaw Farm Independent School Quarnford, Buxton, Derbyshire SK17 0QY

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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 have created an ethos of high expectations for pupils and staff. As a result, pupils’ behaviour and achievement are good.  Pupils’ personal development is successfully promoted by all staff. Pupils are respectful to each other and to staff, and display a very positive attitude to their learning.  Pupils make good progress in their learning from low starting points. Most pupils achieve their targets in external examinations.  Teachers know the pupils well and tailor the curriculum to meet the pupils’ needs. The support of extra adults is very effective and contributes well to pupils’ progress.  Reading is promoted very well. Pupils read good-quality texts and discuss sensitive issues raised in their reading with great maturity.  The curriculum is broad and balanced and enthuses pupils. Pupils benefit from plentiful opportunities for physical and environmental learning outdoors.  Leaders have ensured that all the independent

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

school standards have been met.  Teachers and welfare staff communicate very well about the pupils’ well-being. There is a culture of vigilance to ensure that pupils are safe. However, leaders do not always systematically record or analyse their actions in response to concerns.  Pupils do not have enough opportunities to work with people in the local community or visit different places of worship to gain a deeper understanding of people in modern Britain.  Careers education for pupils in Years 8 and 9 is not developed.  Teachers do not consistently check pupils’ understanding of new concepts in lessons. On occasions, pupils are left confused and learning slows. In addition, teachers do not provide pupils with enough opportunities to problem- solve or reason in mathematics to develop their understanding of the subject.

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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 the effectiveness of leadership and management by: – ensuring that behavioural and bullying incidents are recorded in a systematic way so that trends of pupils’ behaviours can be identified more quickly and action taken to resolve issues promptly – fully recording the actions taken following safeguarding concerns so leaders can analyse if their actions taken have resolved the issues successfully – providing more opportunities for pupils to work with other people from the local community and to learn about people from different faiths through visits to different places of worship to develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding of people in Britain.  Improve pupils’ careers education by: – ensuring that pupils in Years 8 and 9 have access to impartial careers guidance to raise their aspirations and inform their future curriculum choices to prepare for life after school.  Improve teaching, learning and assessment by:

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

– ensuring that teachers consistently check that pupils understand the concepts taught in lessons to enable pupils to achieve the learning outcomes – providing more opportunities for pupils to problem-solve and reason in mathematics to gain a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 The headteacher leads the school well. She has a good understanding of the school’s strengths and is very perceptive about the weaknesses. She takes effective action in response to weaknesses, for example in the quality of teaching, and as a result, teaching has improved and is consistently good.  The school has a positive, warm and caring ethos. Welfare and teaching staff work very effectively together and know the pupils well. Consequently, barriers to pupils’ learning are quickly broken down and pupils make good progress and achieve good outcomes.  The leader of teaching supports and monitors the quality of teaching effectively. She observes pupils in lessons regularly and provides accurate feedback to teachers to help them improve their practice. She also offers to teach alongside teachers and set up opportunities for teachers to observe each other to help them improve their practice. This has enabled teachers to improve their own performance and better support pupils’ learning.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 The headteacher meets teachers regularly to discuss their performance. She works closely with the leader of teaching to ensure that staff are supported in their professional development and attend training courses to improve particular aspects of their teaching. If a teacher is at risk of underperformance, this is discussed and targets are set to ensure rapid improvement. The quality of teaching is good.  The executive headteacher and headteacher are determined that all the pupils succeed. They expect all staff to have high expectations for pupils’ personal and academic development. Staff are fully committed to the needs of the pupils and the school is a happy and successful place to learn.  The curriculum is broad and balanced. Pupils are taught a full range of subjects and leaders have ensured that staff have the expertise to teach the subjects. Pupils have the opportunity to study for Entry Levels and towards GCSE examinations in the subjects of

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

which they are capable. Pupils have many opportunities to participate in adventurous outdoor activities, such as bouldering, abseiling and orienteering. Pupils also work towards qualifications in climbing. These skills provide opportunities for pupils to work collaboratively, raise their own self-esteem and have an appreciation of the rural environment around the school.  Teachers promote fundamental British values well. Pupils learn about the rule of law and visit the local courts to see how the criminal justice system works. During a citizenship lesson pupils studied how people can become radicalised and could explain how extreme views were wrong and did not promote tolerance of those of different faiths or beliefs.  Pupils’ social and moral development is promoted well. Pupils responded well to a statement about domestic violence in a citizenship lesson. They recognised different types of abuse and explained why all forms of abuse are wrong. Pupils’ social skills have been

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

supported through working in a local food bank in Leek. This has given them an understanding of the needs of some people in the community. Pupils have raised money for the homeless by baking cakes. As the school is small and isolated, leaders recognise that pupils would benefit from more opportunities to work with people in the community to improve their social skills further.  Pupils’ cultural development is supported through ‘cultural days’ at the school. They have studied the geography of South-east Asia, the religions that people follow and the foods originating on that continent. When pupils studied Mexico, they looked at the impact of gangs living in parts of the community. Pupils’ knowledge and understanding of cultures around the world is developed well. However, pupils have not had enough first-hand experiences of visiting different places of worship to gain a deeper understanding of other

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

peoples’ religions in Britain. This was a development point following the previous inspection which leaders have not actioned.

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Governance

 The proprietor has a deep understanding of the needs of vulnerable pupils who have social, emotional and mental health needs. He is committed to meeting pupils’ emotional needs to enable the pupils to thrive. The proprietor has established a management structure to enable professionals to work together and to be held to account. This structure enables the executive headteacher to supervise the work of the headteacher, care manager and the school’s psychotherapist. This ensures close working relationships between the different professionals.  The proprietor holds the executive headteacher to account on a monthly basis for the welfare and academic progress of pupils. He ensures that the pupils’ progress towards meeting the outcomes in the pupils’ care plans and personal education plans are the focus for those meetings. He checks the actions taken by leaders for pupils who are at risk of underachieving to ensure that everything has been implemented to enable pupils

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Governance

to make progress.  The proprietor ensures that external consultants and local authorities are asked to quality- assure the work of the school to validate the school’s self-evaluation. Actions detailed by external consultants are incorporated into the school improvement plan to improve the school further.  The proprietor has ensured that all the independent school standards have been met.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.  The staff are highly vigilant about the pupils’ emotional and mental health and well-being. The psychotherapist works closely with pupils and staff to assess pupils’ needs and identify strategies for pupils to use to improve their mental health well-being. The psychotherapist regularly meets staff to check the pupils’ progress and to provide training. The progress that pupils make is closely tracked to see if the therapy is making a positive difference. Pupils make good progress; however, this may fluctuate at times depending on changes to pupils’ personal circumstances.  Leaders have ensured that safeguarding is prominent on the curriculum to help keep pupils safe. Last month pupils learned about the dangers of child sexual exploitation. Pupils studied how people can be befriended on the internet and how children can be groomed. The school has a firewall in place to prevent pupils from accessing

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Safeguarding

inappropriate material on the internet. Furthermore, pupils do not have unsupervised access to the internet, nor are they allowed a mobile phone.  The staff receive regular training about safeguarding. They have recently studied how children can be involved in gangs distributing drugs across the country. Staff know to report any concerns to designated senior leaders for safeguarding, and know how to escalate their concerns if they feel school leaders are not acting on their concerns appropriately.  The school’s system for recording incidents involving physical restraint are secure. Staff record in detail about the events leading up to the restraint and what happened during the restraint. Pupils are also asked for their views of an incident involving restraint. There has only been one physical restraint in the school over the last two years. Staff are very skilled at diffusing potential conflicts.  Leaders have ensured that all the required checks have been completed on staff during

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Safeguarding

the recruitment process. All checks are recorded on the school’s single central record.  The school’s system for recording all behaviour and bullying incidents is not systematic and can be found in various documents. Furthermore, the leaders’ actions following safeguarding incidents are not always fully recorded. This means that staff cannot identify patterns of behaviour easily or quickly to try to reduce incidents of poor behaviour even further. Furthermore, staff cannot fully analyse their actions in response to concerns to check if they have been successful.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

 Teachers plan lessons which motivate the pupils to learn. Pupils have learned how newspaper editors use puns and alliteration to create headlines. This was new learning for the pupils. Pupils are able to match puns to real headlines to demonstrate their understanding.  In science, teachers ensure that pupils have the opportunity to conduct investigations as well as learning about famous scientists. Teachers successfully use pupils’ prior learning to extend their knowledge and understanding. Pupils have recently learned about acids and alkalis and then used this knowledge to identify chemical reactions as they made bath bombs.  The teaching assistant provides excellent support in class. He quickly identifies when pupils need extra support or concepts clarifying to support pupils’ learning. In mathematics he supported pupils well to read scales and identify the missing numbers.  All staff have good relationships with the pupils. They quickly identify in lessons when

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

pupils lose focus and become disengaged. Teachers are calm with pupils, ask about the problem and support pupils to overcome any issues. As a result, very little learning time is lost and learning is not disrupted for other pupils.  In German, pupils learn basic vocabulary to introduce themselves. Pupils who were initially reluctant to learn a new language are now positive and remembering key words and phrases.  Teachers do not consistently check that pupils have a secure understanding of concepts taught within lessons. Consequently, some pupils are left confused. This is sometimes resolved by the prompt action of the teaching assistant to support pupils. However, there are still occasions when pupils require extra clarification of concepts from teachers to increase their understanding.  In mathematics, pupils study a range of topics and learn how to use the four rules of number. However, pupils do not have enough opportunities to reason and problem-solve

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

to increase their mathematical understanding.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.  Pupils demonstrate high levels of respect to staff and to each other. They follow teachers’ instructions and ask for help when needed. Pupils show enthusiasm for learning and maintain their levels of concentration through the day. As a result of their positive attitude to learning, pupils make good progress.  Pupils are developing their social skills through taking part in a ‘come dine with me’ competition. Pupils are working with staff to cook a dinner for other pupils and staff and are scored by the diners for their efforts. This is creating excitement among the pupils and staff and promoting positive relationships.  Pupils present their work to a high standard in all books. Pupils’ handwriting is consistent and legible.  Pupils demonstrate great maturity when discussing sensitive issues. During their class reading, pupils discussed thoughtfully the issue of racism and the effect it was having on

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Personal development and welfare

the main character in the book.  During a recent project based on sexuality, pupils became aware of differences related to gender and the need to respect everyone for the choices they make. Pupils are tolerant of each other and show respect to people who are different from themselves.  In personal, social and health education pupils are taught about self-esteem and how if they like themselves, they are more likely to make the right choices. Pupils who have been at the school for a while show good improvement in their self-worth and communicate better with each other and with staff. This creates a positive climate for learning.  Pupils have learned about cyber bullying and know how to report their concerns on the internet.  Pupils in Years 10 and 11 attend the Skills Show at the National Exhibition Centre. Staff discuss the visit with pupils to check that they have understood the possible career pathways available to them. Pupils have the opportunities to go on work experience in

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Personal development and welfare

Year 10. Pupils receive impartial careers advice from an external company about academic and vocational courses. Staff take pupils to open days at colleges to help pupils decide if the college is right for them. However, younger pupils in Years 8 and 9 do not receive impartial careers advice to help them know which subjects or courses they may want to study to further their aspirations.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good.  The school is a calm environment where pupils learn and make good progress. The very strong relationships between staff and pupils promote good conduct throughout the school day. At lunchtime pupils enjoy playing football with staff and this provides a suitable opportunity for pupils to relax before the afternoon lessons. Pupils are equally focused in the afternoons as they are in the mornings to ensure that learning takes place through the day.  Pupils use and share resources appropriately in the classroom. They listen to each others’ views and show good respect to all adults.  Pupils’ self-discipline to maintain their positive behaviour improves over time at the school. Pupils have behaviour targets and earn points for good behaviour in each lesson. They are motivated to behave well through a range of rewards, including selecting places for school visits. For example, pupils have enjoyed a visit to a waterpark.

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Behaviour

 Pupils’ attendance has improved and is now good for all pupils. When pupils first start the school they may have missed a lot of education and absenteeism can still be an issue. However, staff work well with pupils and as a result, their attendance improves rapidly.

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Outcomes for pupils Good

 Pupils’ reading is promoted well. Pupils study good quality texts, for example Gangsta Rap by Benjamin Zephaniah. They read for sustained periods of time and can answer questions about the texts thoughtfully. Pupils read aloud accurately and fluently.  Pupils are making good progress from their starting points. After initial assessments, teachers set targets for pupils to achieve, and leaders regularly check on the pupils’ progress. Pupils make slightly better progress in English than in mathematics over time. Pupils have studied for Entry Level awards in both subjects and most have achieved their targets.  Pupils’ writing is developed well. They have the opportunity to write both fiction and non- fiction pieces. Pupils are able to structure their writing and communicate clearly to the reader.  Most pupils are well prepared for their next stage of education, employment or training. Pupils have transferred to college or have secured apprenticeships when they have left

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Outcomes for pupils Good

the school. A small minority of pupils have left school with no education, employment or training in place.  In art, pupils have analysed and designed good-quality African masks. Pupils have researched the use of colours on the masks and their significance to the design. Pupils have made an initial design and then made improvements. Pupils take great care with their designs and present their work neatly.  In outdoor activities pupils learn how to use the global positioning system (GPS) to locate geocaches in the environment. Pupils also successfully learn how to attach a harness and rope for climbing activities.

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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

Date of previous inspection 1−3 October 2014

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Information about this school

 This is an independent special school for pupils who have experienced social, emotional and mental health difficulties.  Although the school caters for boys and girls, the school currently has all boys.  The school is operated under the proprietorship of Care Today Children’s Service. It is one group of five schools, owned by Care Today, which share management and staffing arrangements.  The school provides full-time education for pupils aged between 11 to 16 years. Pupils are placed at the school by local authorities.  The school aims to provide a nurturing environment to raise pupils’ self-esteem and enable them to reach their academic potential. The school uses the rural environment to enable pupils to participate in a range of outdoor activities.  One pupil has an education, health and care plan.  The school was last inspected in October 2014.

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Information about this inspection

 The lead inspector met with the headteacher, executive headteacher, the leader for teaching and learning, members of the teaching staff and the school’s psychotherapist. He held a telephone call with the proprietor.  The inspector observed learning in five lessons alongside the leader for teaching. He observed the feedback provided to teachers by the leader of teaching. He also observed pupils at lunchtime and heard pupils read.  The inspector scrutinised pupils’ work, analysed the school’s tracking information and reviewed the pupil destination data. He reviewed a range of documents related to safeguarding. He also reviewed curriculum documentation, teachers’ planning, the school’s self-evaluation, the school improvement plan and information related to the supervision of teachers.

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Inspection team

Martin Finch, 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

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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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Inspection team

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