Darley Cottage

Darley Cottage Independent school inspection report

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DCSF registration number 370/6301 Unique reference number 135696 Social care reference SC 363630 Inspection number 342480 Inspection dates 15-16 September 2009 Reporting inspector Honoree Gordon HMI Social care inspector Debbie Foster

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This inspection of the school was carried out under section 162A of the Education Act 2002, as amended. The inspection of boarding was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000.

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Age group: 10-17 Published: Reference no: 090070 achieve 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 Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It rates council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 08456 404040, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way.

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Royal Exchange Buildings St Ann's Square Manchester M2 7LA

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T: 08456 404040 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk No. 090070 Independent school inspection report

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Purpose and scope of the inspection

This inspection was carried out by Ofsted under Section 162A of the Education Act 2002, as amended, the purpose of which is to advise the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families about the school’s suitability for continued registration as an independent school.

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Purpose and scope of the inspection

An inspection of the boarding provision was conducted at the same time. A full report on this provision is available in the social care section of the Ofsted website.

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Information about the school

Darley cottage is situated in a suburban area near Barnsley. The school opened in September 2008 and is part of the Castle Homes group of schools. It is registered for up to three students. There is currently one student on roll, aged 13. The school has a small residential unit.

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Information about the school

The school educates students who have severe behavioural or social difficulties and whose behaviour is very challenging. Students’ previous education will have been disrupted.

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Information about the school

The school seeks to provide ‘a safe and secure environment’ in which the students can re-engage in learning, with the ultimate aim of reintegrating them into mainstream education.

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Evaluation of the school

This is the school’s first full inspection since it was registered. The school meets most of the regulations. The quality of education is satisfactory and the boarding provision is good. The school meets all the requirements for safeguarding.

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Evaluation of the school

The welfare, health and safety of the students are good. As a result of this good care students improve their attendance at lessons and begin to improve their social skills. The school works hard to improve students’ challenging behaviour, but this sometimes remains a significant barrier to learning.

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Evaluation of the school

One student has recently transferred to mainstream education.

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Quality of education

The curriculum is satisfactory and is flexibly organised to respond to students’ needs and interests. For example, the current student follows an individual programme whilst an ex-student now attends a mainstream school to follow GCSE courses.

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Quality of education

The curriculum is planned in detail on a weekly basis, with an outline annual plan, broken down into half-term topics. These link the various subjects together to make Independent school inspection report learning coherent and relevant. However, there is little long-term planning to show how basic skills and knowledge, for example in English and in mathematics, are to be developed over time.

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Quality of education

There are daily lessons in literacy and in numeracy, partly delivered through other subjects, such as food technology, with weighing and measuring ingredients, or reading recipes. In practice, opportunities are often missed in these lessons to do so as intended, in ways that challenge the student to really think or apply these skills. Science is taught weekly by a visiting specialist teacher.

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Quality of education

There are some opportunities for students to gain nationally recognised accreditation for their achievements, for example entry level GCSEs or units of work through the Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network (ASDAN) or the Association of Qualifications Alliance (AQA).

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Quality of education

Physical education (PE) sessions take place at a local sports centre and typically include swimming, badminton and football. There are a few extra-curricular activities in the evenings and at weekends, such as local walks and horse-riding. These reflect students’ interests and staff expertise.

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Quality of education

ASDAN units make a small contribution to developing life skills, such as good nutrition but there are too few opportunities for preparing students for independent adult life. Students are taught information and communication technology (ICT) as this arises though their topic work. However, thus far they have had few opportunities to develop independence in learning, for example using the internet for research.

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Quality of education

Students are normally taught one-to-one with a teacher and an assistant. From time to time students attend shared curriculum days at other schools within the group. They make accompanied visits locally, for example to the library, but have few occasions when they can develop the necessary social skills to successfully relate to their own peer group.

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Quality of education

Teaching and assessment are satisfactory. Students begin to re-engage with learning. As a result, the school’s records show that attendance and punctuality to lessons are good and much improved. However, students’ progress in learning is inadequate. There is little evidence of progress over time. Poor behaviour and lack of concentration in lessons are often significant barriers to progress. Teachers encourage students to try hard and are skilled at managing behaviour so as to minimise disruption to lessons. Nevertheless, learning is spasmodic and too dependent on students’ fluctuating moods.

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Quality of education

The school has made repeated attempts to obtain a written statement from the local education authority but have yet to receive the document. Consequently, students’ individual education plans are wholly based on the school’s best estimate of students’ needs. Independent school inspection report Nevertheless, teachers plan lessons carefully and use time wisely. They use topic- based and ‘hands-on’ practical approaches that encourage participation. Much work is conducted orally as students are reluctant to write. Whilst the range of activities and tasks are appropriate, and as a result some learning takes place, the pace of learning is too slow.

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Quality of education

The range of resources to engage and promote learning is insufficient. For example, reference materials for a topic on Egypt were too difficult for a student’s reading age. Opportunities are missed to draw on the internet and commercial software as resources to make lessons more exciting and to allow for individual research and skills practice.

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Quality of education

Company policy is for baseline assessments of what students know and can do to be conducted on admission to the school, and annually thereafter. However, at times students refuse to cooperate and it is has proved difficult then for the school to assess progress. A new assessment system has begun in September 2009 that is intended to show more clearly the progress that students make.

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Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of the pupils

The provision for students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is satisfactory. The school’s records show some improvement in students’ attitudes to school and in their social skills. Consequently, over time sanctions have had to be applied less frequently. This represents significant progress from students’ starting points. Students begin to enjoy school better than in the recent past and as a result their attendance improves. Students are now willing to attend lessons on a daily regular basis. Attendance is good. Through its attempts to re-engage students, the school is beginning to help prepare them better for their future.

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Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of the pupils

Teaching and residential staff reinforce social and moral education at every opportunity. Students learn about the dangers and consequences of negative behaviour. Staff provide consistent models for appropriate, controlled behaviour and a rewards scheme helps to promote this. Students learn how to use ‘time out’ to help them manage and improve their own behaviour. Despite this, and the best efforts of staff, behaviour in school remains inadequate: students are still too often rude or uncooperative and this hinders their learning. For example students found having additional adults in school at the time of the inspection quite difficult to cope with.

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Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of the pupils

There is a programme for personal, social, and health education, but it is too patchy. It is not clear how it is being implemented. The residential and educational aspects do not link up sufficiently well to fully meet students’ developing needs. There is no programme for education about citizenship so that pupils can acquire a broad general knowledge about public institutions and services. There are few occasions where students get involved in their community, but the school is seeking to widen Independent school inspection report the number of opportunities. For example, students are being encouraged to consider fundraising for charity and involvement in an inter-school youth forum.

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Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of the pupils

A monthly international topic introduces students to other cultures and customs. This is reinforced by specific teaching about national holidays and religious festivals and helps to promote students’ awareness and tolerance of others.

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Welfare, health and safety of the pupils

The provision for welfare, health and safety is good. All the required policies and procedures are in place to underpin this. Records and checks are rigorous and there is a good programme for staff training in, for example, first aid and child protection. Risk assessments are carefully completed for all activities.

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Welfare, health and safety of the pupils

Students are closely supervised. They have regular opportunities for exercise to help keep them healthy, though not as frequently as the school’s plans suggest.

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Welfare, health and safety of the pupils

The school fulfils its duties under the Disability Discrimination Act

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Suitability of the proprietor and staff

The school has satisfactorily completed all the required checks on the staff it employs. Appropriate checks are also conducted on others involved with the school, such as visiting teachers or professionals.

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School’s premises and accommodation

The school’s premises are suitable. The classroom is modern, bright and quiet. It has a computer. There are no specialist subject rooms. There is a small play area, with a trampoline and a garden. The school is located within easy distance of a sports centre for PE activities.

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Provision of information for parents, carers and others

The school meets all but one of the requirements for the provision of information. End of term reports for parents focus on attitude, behaviour and outcomes such as health, but do not give enough information about what students have learnt and how their skills have improved in each subject. There are no levels or scores to guide parents as to how well their child is progressing. Independent school inspection report

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Procedures for handling complaints

The school’s procedures meet all the requirements. There have been no formal complaints in the last year.

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Effectiveness of the boarding provision

The residential provision was judged to be good. Virtually all the national minimum standards were met. A full report on this provision is available in the social care section of the Ofsted website.

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Compliance with regulatory requirements

The school meets all of the Education (Independent School Standards) (England) Regulations 2003 as amended (‘the Regulations’), with the exception of those listed below. 1

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Compliance with regulatory requirements

The school does not meet all requirements in respect of the curriculum (standard 1) and must:

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Compliance with regulatory requirements

 ensure that there is adequate preparation of pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life (paragraph 1(2)(j))  ensure that the teaching enables pupils to acquire new knowledge, and make progress according to their ability so that they increase their understanding and develop their skills in the subjects taught ( paragraph 1(3)(a))  ensure that teachers show a good understanding of the aptitudes, needs and prior attainments of the pupils, and taken these into account in the planning of lessons( paragraph 1(3)(d))  provide classroom resources of an adequate quality, quantity and range and ensure that these are used effectively (paragraph 1(3)(f))  put a framework in place to assess pupils' work regularly and thoroughly and use the information from this to plan teaching so that pupils can make progress (paragraph 1(3)(g)). The school does not meet all requirements in respect of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social

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Compliance with regulatory requirements

and cultural development (standard 2) and must:

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Compliance with regulatory requirements

 provide pupils with a broad general knowledge of public institutions and services in England (paragraph 2(d)).

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Compliance with regulatory requirements

The school does not meet all requirements in respect of the provision of information for parents, carers and others (standard 6) and must:

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Compliance with regulatory requirements

1 www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2003/20031910.htm Independent school inspection report  include in the annual written report to parents particulars of the progress and attainment of each registered child in the main subject areas taught (paragraph 6(6)). Independent school inspection report Inspection judgement recording form outstanding good satisfactory inadequate

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Compliance with regulatory requirements

Overall quality of education √ How well the curriculum and other activities meet the range of needs and interests of pupils √

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Compliance with regulatory requirements

How effective teaching and assessment are in meeting the full range of pupils’ needs √

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Compliance with regulatory requirements

How well pupils make progress in their learning √

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Compliance with regulatory requirements

Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development

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Compliance with regulatory requirements

Quality of provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development √

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Compliance with regulatory requirements

The overall welfare, health and safety of pupils √

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Compliance with regulatory requirements

Evaluation of boarding provision √ Independent school inspection report

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School details

Name of school Darley Cottage DCSF number 370/6301 Unique reference number 135696 Type of school Independent Special School for students with social, educational and behavioural difficulties (SEBD) Status Independent Date school opened 2 September 2008 Age range of pupils 11-18 Gender of pupils Mixed Number on roll (full-time pupils) Boys: 1 Girls: 0 Total: 1 Number of boarders Boys: 1 Girls: 0 Total: 1 Number of pupils with a statement of special educational need Boys: 1 Girls: 0 Total: 1

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School details

Number of pupils who are looked after Boys: 1 Girls: 0 Total: 1 Annual fees (boarders) £209,444.00 Address of school Castlecare Education The Manor House Squires Hill Rothwell Northamptonshire NN14 6BQ Telephone number 01536 711111 Fax number 01536 712994 Email address manager.darleycottage@castlehomes.co.uk Headteacher Mrs Linda Headland Proprietor Castle Homes Reporting inspector Honoree Gordon HMI Dates of inspection 15-16 September 2009

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