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Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 1231 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Sandra Mahoney Head of School Old Warren House School Warren Road Lowestoft Suffolk NR32 4QD

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Ofsted visit to Old Warren House School

Following my visit with John Mitcheson, Her Majesty's Inspector (HMI), to your school on 15 October 2020, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to confirm the visit’s findings. Thank you for the time you made available to discuss your actions since September 2020, when the government expected all schools to open fully to all pupils.

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Ofsted visit to Old Warren House School

This visit was conducted under section 8 of the Education Act 2005 (as amended) and in accordance with Ofsted's published procedures for visiting schools while routine inspections are temporarily suspended.

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Ofsted visit to Old Warren House School

Ofsted’s visits to schools during the autumn term are not inspections. We are not giving graded judgements. We did not undertake the usual range of inspection activities and were unable to check other sources of evidence, such as visits to lessons or looking at pupils’ work. The content of this letter gives an overview of our discussions about what has happened in your school this term.

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Ofsted visit to Old Warren House School

During the visit, we spoke to the senior leadership team. We did not speak to pupils because of the protective measures in place.

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Context

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills is leading Ofsted’s work into how England’s education system is managing the return to full education for pupils following an extended break in formal schooling due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. In undertaking this focused work, HMI are visiting a broad range of schools. HMI will visit a sample of:

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Context

 approximately 1,200 schools across all Ofsted grades (outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate)  maintained schools, academies and free schools, special schools and centres of alternative provision, including those in cities, and coastal, town or rural communities.

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Context

The information from this visit will feed into Ofsted’s national reporting so that the insights can be shared with the government and the education sector. We did not find any significant concerns during the visit. In such a case, an inspection report would be published on our website and available to parents and carers.

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Context

We did not consider your response to COVID-19 during the spring and summer terms 2020, when the school was not open to all pupils.

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

 This pupil referral unit (PRU) for Year 10 and 11 pupils re-opened fully on Thursday 3 September 2020.  Attendance is slightly lower than it was at this time last year. The total number of pupils on roll is small. A few pupils have had to self-isolate due to family illness.  Pupils returned to learning their full range of examination subjects from the start of the term. Every pupil has a personal timetable that covers their chosen range of subjects.  Since re-opening, staff have checked the starting points for pupils and used this information to inform their planning of learning.  Some pupils are having extra English and reading support.  Leaders have changed the order of learning content in some subjects. For example, in science, teachers are concentrating on pupils doing practical experiments which are more difficult to be replicated online.  The teaching of a wide range of enrichment activities, including work

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

experience, has halted. Leaders have planned some alternative activities for pupils to take part in this term. Leaders hope to increase these as the year progresses.  Leaders have made arrangements to enable pupils to learn remotely. Packs of work are delivered to pupils’ homes when there is a need to self-isolate. Leaders are developing further resources to enable pupils to learn by themselves online if the need arises in the future. Thank you again for contributing to this important national work. The views and experiences you have shared will help to inform future policy.

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From this visit, inspectors noted that:

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

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