Fieldstone School

School material change inspection report

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The Growing Rooms, Seale Hayne, Howton Lane, Newton Abbot, Devon TQ12 6NQ

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Main inspection findings

Part 3. Welfare, health and safety of pupils Paragraph 7  Leaders at the school place a high priority on safeguarding pupils. The chief executive officer (CEO) of Life Chance Education, who was formerly the headteacher, is the director with responsibility for safeguarding. He holds the executive principal to account for implementing the school’s policies and procedures effectively. Consequently, leaders at the school know and carry out their responsibilities diligently.  The executive principal is also the designated safeguarding lead at the school. He leads a team of five, who all have the appropriate training. Regular meetings between the safeguarding team ensure that information is shared and systems and processes are effective across this multi-site school. For example, each head of school is a member of the team and takes direct responsibility for implementing policies in full. All staff receive regular and appropriate training.

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Main inspection findings

 The school’s safeguarding policy is detailed and appropriate, and appears on the school’s website. The policy includes direct reference to the latest statutory guidance. The rigour of leaders’ processes reflects the high vulnerability of the pupils that attend the school.  This standard is likely to be met. Paragraph 11  The school has an appropriate health and safety policy, which appears on the school’s website. Leaders have rightly reviewed the health and safety policy in line with the move to utilise the proposed new school buildings. This shows that processes relating to health and safety are continually reviewed by the board of directors. Leaders ensure that staff are aware of their responsibility to act within the detail of the policy. They discuss health and safety, alongside safeguarding, regularly at staff meetings and through the clinical supervision of staff.  This standard is likely to be met.

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Main inspection findings

Paragraph 12  Leaders have ensured compliance with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. The proposed new school site has appropriate fire equipment, fire alarms and signed fire exits. Leaders have ensured that both the new site and current site at Seale Hayne are regularly risk assessed for hazards. Regular fire drills are utilised to help leaders amend policy and practice where necessary.  This standard is likely to be met. Paragraph 14  Senior leaders and directors ensure that they regularly and carefully review the ratios of staff available to support pupils. Leaders have secured sufficiently skilled and experienced staff to work with the vulnerable pupils the school serves. Plans for growth are gradual and steady. Current staffing ratios are appropriate and are well placed to adapt to leaders’ plans should the material change be granted. Expectations about levels of supervision and how pupils are supervised, therefore, would remain

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Main inspection findings

the same as the school grows.  This standard is likely to be met. Paragraph 16  Leaders work to a well-written and considered risk assessment policy. Staff assess risk on many levels, including those relating to school premises, specific learning activities and for individual pupils’ needs. Leaders have already completed robust assessments in relation to the use of the proposed new building. The board of directors ensures that leaders hold staff to account in taking action to mitigate risk.  This standard is likely to be met.

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Main inspection findings

Part 4. Suitability of staff, supply staff, and proprietors Paragraphs 17 to 21  Staff recruitment processes are well developed and appropriate. Leaders make sure that all appropriate checks are made on new staff, because they act on the safer recruitment training they have received. Records of these checks are kept on a well- organised electronic single central register. For example, there are details of all staff, volunteers, contractors, supply staff and directors on the register. Directors review regularly that the checks that are made meet their own and statutory expectations.  These standards are likely to be met.

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Main inspection findings

Part 5. Premises of and accommodation at schools Paragraphs 22 to 31  The site of the proposed new address of the school is a large Georgian property within the town of Newton Abbot. The site was previously used as a sixth-form building by a local secondary school. As such, the site has plentiful outdoor space and appropriate indoor accommodation. The building has been adapted by leaders and is split for use. Part of the building is being used as offices by Life Chance Education Ltd, the company that owns the school. The rest of the building has been adapted to facilitate five extra classrooms, therapy spaces, a kitchen, dining room and other related facilities for the school. Leaders continue to use the site at Seale Hayne.  Leaders have adapted the school facilities to a high standard. Each classroom is spacious. Some classrooms are made up of multi-use areas to allow for the specialist curriculum the school offers. All rooms are well lit and the acoustics are appropriate

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Main inspection findings

for learning. Rooms are centrally heated and have windows for ventilation. Each classroom benefits from nearby break-out rooms, some of which have been prepared well to allow for sensory processing breaks and occupational therapy support.  The buildings benefit from individual toilets, all of which are lockable from the inside and have a hot and cold water supply. Toilets are designated for the use of either pupils or staff. At the time of the inspection, there was one toilet cubicle that did not have access to hot water and another that had water that posed a scalding risk. However, leaders acted to resolve these issues before the inspection was completed.  Both sites benefit from designated medical rooms and facilities for the administration of first aid. Medical rooms are either next to a toilet or have one within the same room.  Outdoor spaces for use at breaktimes and for play are appropriately fenced at both

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Main inspection findings

sites. There is lighting on the sides of both buildings at the main entrance to each school. Pupils benefit from physical education lessons at the Seale Hayne site. The use of a minibus means that those who will learn at College House will be transported to use the same facilities. As such, there is access to separate changing rooms and showers for pupils. Leaders have also installed a small shower in the College House buildings.  These standards are likely to be met.

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Main inspection findings

Part 8. Quality of leadership in and management of schools Paragraph 34  Leaders at all levels, including directors and senior leaders, work effectively together under a collective, shared vision. They continue to strive to find ways to achieve their aim of improving the life chances of the pupils who attend their school. This has led to the request to change the main address of the school so that the facilities on offer are better suited to the needs of pupils.  Leaders’ actions in adapting the accommodation and plans for careful expansion have appropriate consideration of the independent school standards. The quality of the accommodation and leaders’ plans show that they are well placed to increase the school’s capacity to 100 pupils across the two sites.  Governance arrangements are a strength. Directors have carefully organised systems for checking on the progress and management of the school. They have detailed

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Main inspection findings

processes for maintaining and updating policy and practice. They hold leaders to account in a considered and diligent way. Staff well-being is at the heart of the management of the school.  This standard is likely to be met. Schedule 10 of the Equality Act 2010  Directors have established an equality and diversity policy. This includes a written accessibility plan. The plan has been amended and updated following an audit of the quality of the new site. As such, leaders have ensured that they meet the requirements of Schedule 10 of the Equality Act 2010.  This standard is likely to be met.

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Compliance with regulatory requirements

The school is likely to meet the requirements of the schedule to the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014 (‘the independent school standards’) and associated requirements that are relevant to the material change.

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School details

This inspection was carried out under section 162(4) of the Education Act 2002, the purpose of which is to advise the Secretary of State for Education about the school’s likely compliance with the independent school standards relevant to the material change that the school has applied to make.

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School details

Type of school Other independent special school

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School details

Date of previous standard inspection 27 February to 5 March 2018

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recommendation

Number of pupils on the school roll 42 100 100

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School’s current position School’s proposal

Number of full-time pupils of compulsory school age 41 100

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School’s current position School’s proposal

Number of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities 41 100

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School’s current position School’s proposal

Of which, number of pupils with an education, health and care plan 41 100

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School’s current position School’s proposal

Of which, number of pupils paid for by a local authority with an education, health and care plan 41 100

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School’s current position School’s proposal

Number of full-time equivalent teaching staff 7 10

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School’s current position School’s proposal

Number of staff in the welfare provision 7 9

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Information about this school

 The School for Inspiring Talents is owned by Life Chance Education Limited (LCE). The CEO of LCE is effectively the proprietor, given his role within the company. The board of LCE has two other directors.  The school opened in October 2014.  The school uses accommodation on two sites. The main site is at Seale Hayne, where the school leases rooms from an independent landowner. The second, much smaller and now unused, provision is in Torquay. Recently, LCE acquisitioned College House, Ashburton Road, Newton Abbot, which it leases from Coombeshead Academy. The buildings have been converted into offices for LCE staff and separately into classroom and therapy spaces for the school. Leaders propose to use this as the main school site and to continue to use the rooms they lease at Seale Hayne. This gives the school access to a much wider range of classroom spaces.  The executive principal oversees teaching and learning across both sites. Since the

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Information about this school

previous material change inspection, the leadership team has been reduced, so that there are now only two heads of school, one for each site.  The school provides education for pupils who have been excluded or withdrawn from mainstream schools. Pupils have a range of social, emotional and mental health difficulties. All pupils have an education, health and care plan and are placed at the school by local authorities.  Since the previous material change inspection, the Dame Hannah Rogers Trust has sold the buildings it owns at Seale Hayne. A new private owner has allowed the continued lease of the Seale Hayne rooms for the school.  The school proposes to increase the maximum number of places it offers from the current figure of 54 pupils to a new maximum of 100. The total number of pupils currently on roll is 41.

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Information about this inspection

 This inspection was carried out by Ofsted at the request of the Secretary of State for Education. It was carried out under Section 162 of the Education Act 2002.  The lead inspector met with the CEO of Life Chance Education Ltd (who is also a director of the school), the executive principal and the school’s compliance officer. He undertook a tour of the upper school and the lower school at the Seale Hayne campus and the site of the proposed change of school address at College House in Newton Abbot. At the time of the inspection, the school was closed to pupils for the summer holiday.  The lead inspector evaluated a range of documentation, including the school’s policies required under the independent school standards and other documents relating to health and safety.

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Inspection team

Matthew Barnes, 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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