The Mile House Therapeutic School

Inspection of The Mile House Therapeutic School Bath Road, Sulhamstead, Reading RG7 5HJ

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Requires improvement Personal development Requires improvement Leadership and management Requires improvement Does the school meet the independent school standards?

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are loved and cherished at The Mile House. Many have struggled to access education in the past. Here, they benefit from the therapeutic approach that the school specialises in. Adults give pupils a fresh start and begin rebuilding pupils’ character and self-belief. The relationships between adults and pupils are wonderful.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school is a calm haven for pupils. Behaviour is positive in lessons and around the building. Leaders have instilled important routines that teach pupils good habits and encourage a feeling of safety. Pupils say this is an inclusive school that celebrates differences and that bullying has no place. Staff and pupils eat together as one ‘family’ for breakfast and lunch. Here, pupils learn to converse with each other and develop their table manners. The outdoor grounds for pupils’ recreation are excellent.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Beyond the important therapy that happens for pupils, educational standards are not yet good enough. Pupils are not learning well academically because the curriculum is not meeting where pupils are at. Furthermore, some pupils are not coming to school regularly. They have already missed years of education. Leaders know they need to urgently find ways of enabling these pupils to access an education entitlement.

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better?

The first year of operation has not gone as smoothly as leaders and the proprietor body would have hoped. There is goodwill and moral determination to provide a holistic education for pupils with complex special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The two interim senior leaders have put pupils at the heart of their actions and developed a team that shares this passion. However, the education in place is somewhat adrift of the vision set. Importantly, key school improvement priorities have not been achieved. Furthermore, staffing challenges throughout the year have impeded the pace of the school’s development priorities.

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better?

The academic curriculum is not aligned well enough with pupils’ starting points and what is laid out in their education, health and care plans (EHC plan). Furthermore, in some subjects, the essential knowledge that pupils need to learn has not been identified and is not coherently sequenced. For example, leaders’ planning sometimes identifies many learning intentions in one go. This makes it unclear exactly what the key knowledge that pupils should learn incrementally across a series of lessons is.

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better?

A reading culture is beginning to emerge as leaders try to tune pupils into a love of reading. Class libraries are well stocked with fiction books that pupils can access. Leaders recognise that being able to read fluently and confidently is fundamental to improving pupils’ knowledge acquisition, vocabulary and mental health. However, some pupils are not getting the appropriate curriculum to learn to read. A systematic approach to phonics, supported by staff training, is not currently in place. 3 to 5 July 2023 Effective implementation of the curriculum is at an early stage. At times, staff are thinking about activities to motivate pupils rather than starting first with the intended knowledge they want pupils to learn. Task choices are not pitched appropriately for some pupils. Positively, staff show strong subject knowledge and are able to break down lesson content into manageable chunks. They explain

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better?

concepts clearly and understand to revisit content regularly with pupils. Screening and standardised assessments are used well to identify what pupils might broadly know. However, teachers are not checking accurately whether pupils are progressing through the school’s curriculum. This is because the curriculum intent is focused on skills instead of the steps of knowledge needed to build towards these end goals.

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better?

Some pupils do not come to school as often as they should. Consequently, these pupils are not accessing the opportunities the school offers. Furthermore, leaders are not utilising remote education as a way to deliver the curriculum. There are weaknesses in the school’s offer because work set for pupils at home does not align with the classroom curriculum.

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better?

Leaders’ knowledge of the independent school standards (the standards) has strengthened. There is attention to detail in the oversight of health and safety. A calendar of routine checks is firmly established. The school building is immaculate. Pupils have excellent resources provided for their education. Everyone takes pride in keeping the learning environment tidy as well as the bathroom facilities. Classrooms are well designed to support pupils with autism. The school complies with schedule 10 of the Equality Act 2010.

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better?

Some strands of the personal development programme are underdeveloped. Leaders recognise they need to do more to help pupils learn about different faiths and religions and to plan tailored careers advice and guidance. The school’s personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education programme provides pupils with what they need to understand themselves and to make a positive contribution to society. Equally, the relationships and sex education curriculum teaches pupils about the protected characteristics, for example through learning about same-sex relationships.

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better?

In lessons, most pupils focus and try their best. The small class sizes benefit pupils because staff can provide one-to-one teaching where needed. Adults give clear instructions which pupils know to follow. Pupils are gaining confidence in sharing their opinions with each other.

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better?

The proprietor body and governors have been on a significant journey to improve, but there is still a way to go. The director of education has ensured that proprietors and governors access the right training to help them enact their roles more effectively in checking the school meets the standards. This work is starting to take shape as governance structures and systems become embedded. Governors are beginning to ask more challenging questions about the quality of education for pupils. Wisely, the proprietor has sought external quality assurance to validate leaders’ assertions about standards in the school. 3 to 5 July 2023

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders are highly alert to pupils’ needs and any vulnerabilities they may have. The daily staff briefings ensure all adults are kept up to date on how best to support pupils who may need help. Intelligence sharing is swift, and leaders engage well with other professional agencies.

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Safeguarding

Record-keeping of concerns is well documented, and leaders have an in-depth understanding of the support happening for pupils. However, leaders have not double-checked that all pertinent information is in one central place. The systems for checking the suitability of staff are rigorous and thorough.

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Safeguarding

The safeguarding policy reflects current government guidance and is published on the school’s website.

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(Information for the school and proprietor)

 The school’s curriculum and personal development programme are still evolving. In some subjects, component knowledge is not identified precisely or sequenced coherently. Furthermore, leaders’ curriculum planning does not always closely match pupils’ starting points. This then hinders teachers’ checking of how well pupils are doing at the point they are at. Leaders need to develop the curriculum so that subjects and pathways build towards achieving pupils’ aspirations for the future and that teachers’ assessments focus on checking that pupils know more and remember more.  Teaching staff’s skills in curriculum implementation, including adaptive teaching, are not effective enough. Some activity choices lack ambition and do not match the knowledge that pupils need to practise. Leaders need to carefully plan a professional development programme that supports adults’ teaching knowledge in delivering the planned curriculum.

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(Information for the school and proprietor)

 Some pupils are not attending regularly and are missing out on an education. Persistent absence rates are high. Consequently, pupils are falling further behind because the school’s remote education provision is not well integrated into the school’s planned curriculum. Leaders need to continue their work to remove barriers to pupils’ attendance and ensure that, where appropriate, pupils access purposeful remote education.  The collective impact of leadership and management is not realised. Governance structures and systems are not fully holding leaders to account for the quality of education. With new leadership arrangements imminent, the proprietor body needs to ensure that leaders at all levels successfully implement the school improvement priorities. 3 to 5 July 2023

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How can I feed back my views?

or to find out what other parents and carers think. We use information from Ofsted Parent View when deciding which schools to inspect, when to inspect them and as part of their inspection.

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How can I feed back my views?

The Department for Education has further guidance on how to complain about a school. 3 to 5 July 2023

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School details

Type of school Other independent special school

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School details

Proprietor Calcot Services for Children (Education) Ltd Chair Harvinder and Sukhbir Singh

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School details

Headteacher Geoffrey Bull (Interim Headteacher)

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School details

Annual fees (day pupils) £53,625 to £90,000

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School details

Website www.themilehousetherapeuticschool.co.uk

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School details

Email address themilehousetherapeuticschool@csfc.co.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 16 January 2023 3 to 5 July 2023

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Information about this school

 The Mile House Therapeutic School caters for pupils who have social, emotional and mental health needs and/or a diagnosis of autism. All pupils have an EHC plan.  Currently, there are 20 pupils on roll in Years 7 to 9. The school will expand into key stage 4 next academic year.  The proprietor is Calcot Services for Children Limited which runs children’s homes in the south east region, as well as three therapeutic schools. The schools are based in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.  An interim headteacher and interim deputy headteacher were promoted internally in January 2023 following the departure of the school’s inaugural headteacher. This was the second change in senior leadership since the school opened to pupils in September 2022. Both the current headteacher and deputy headteacher are leaving at the end of this academic year. The proprietor body has appointed a new headteacher to start in September 2023. The executive headteacher’s role

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Information about this school

changed to director of education in May 2023. She oversees all three schools in the company.  The proprietor body established an education committee in January 2023 to fulfil governance functions for the quality of education. Some governors have recently left. At present, the committee comprises one of the proprietors, the chair of the committee and senior leaders from the company’s three schools.  The Mile House Therapeutic School was first judged to have un-met standards in an emergency inspection in June 2022. Subsequently, a progress monitoring inspection in January 2023 concluded that weaknesses remained with the same standards still un-met.  The school is using two unregistered alternative providers.  This is the school’s first standard inspection.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors carried out this inspection under section 109(1) and (2) of the Education and Skills Act 2008. The purpose of the inspection 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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Information about this inspection

The school meets the independent school standards. These are the requirements set out in the schedule to the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors discussed any continued impact of the pandemic with leaders and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors met with the interim headteacher, the interim deputy headteacher, the director of education, staff and pupils. The lead inspector held remote meetings 3 to 5 July 2023 with the proprietor body and with the chair of the education committee.  The inspection team carried out deep dives into these subjects: English, mathematics, creative art and PSHE. To do this, they met with subject leaders, looked at curriculum plans, had discussions with staff and pupils, visited lessons and looked at pupils’ work.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, inspectors spoke with staff and pupils. The lead inspector met with the designated safeguarding leads to examine records and actions. This included sampling a range of safeguarding documentation. He reviewed checks on the safer recruitment of adults.  The lead inspector held telephone conversations with staff at both alternative providers to explore the quality of education and safeguarding.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors talk to pupils about their learning and experiences at school.  The views of staff and parents were gathered through discussions and Ofsted’s online surveys.  The lead inspector toured the school site to gather evidence about compliance with the standards. He also reviewed a range of other relevant policies and documents provided by the school or available via the website.

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The school’s progress in meeting previously failed standards

During the inspection we checked whether the school now meets the independent school standards that it was judged to have failed at its previous school progress monitoring inspection on 16 January 2023.  The outcome of this part of the inspection is: the school now meets the previously failed standards.  At the last inspection, some leadership and management standards within part 8 were un-met. New leaders, including an executive headteacher, and governors had recently started in their roles. Therefore, progress was at an early stage of development. Governors were not robustly challenging leaders and required further training. The proprietor body had commissioned external consultants to carry out quality assurance checks of the impact of leaders’ work.

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The school now meets the following standards

Part 8. Quality of leadership in and management of schools  34 (1) The standard about the quality of leadership and management is met if the proprietor ensures that persons with leadership and management responsibilities at the school- – 34(1)(a) demonstrate good skills and knowledge appropriate to their role so that the independent school standards are met consistently; – 4(1)(b) fulfil their responsibilities effectively so that the independent school standards are met consistently. 3 to 5 July 2023

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Inspection team

James Broadbridge, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Linda Jacobs Ofsted Inspector 3 to 5 July 2023 to 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 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

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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