Cloughside College

Inspection of a good school: Cloughside College Bury New Road, Prestwich, Manchester M25 3BL

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Inspection dates: 30 and 31 January 2024

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Outcome

Cloughside College continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enter the school at different times of the year. All pupils have special educational needs and/or disabilities. They have mental health issues and are patients in hospital. Pupils develop nurturing and trusting relationships with staff, who help them to understand their emotions and anxieties. This helps pupils to feel happy and safe.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school, together with a team of health, medical and care professionals, provides wraparound care and support. This helps pupils to recover and to improve their confidence and their communication and interaction with others.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school has high expectations of pupils’ achievements. It provides them with a personalised and flexible curriculum. Overall, pupils achieve well from their individual starting points. They are keen to learn and behave well in class.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils have rich opportunities to participate in a range of therapies and activities, such as yoga, art, cooking and photography. They know that their opinions matter and value the many opportunities to express themselves. Pupils show respect for differences between themselves and others. The school organises a range of trips and visits, including to art galleries, museums and a farm. Pupils enjoy participating in sports and enterprise activities. These opportunities help to reduce any stress or anxiety that pupils may have.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

The school has high aspirations for pupils. It works in close partnership with pupils’ home schools, hospital staff and social workers. This helps pupils to develop educationally and supports their social and emotional well-being. The school has an ambitious and broad curriculum.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

The school swiftly assesses pupils when they join and uses this information to provide pupils with appropriate curriculum pathways. The school and health professionals 30 and 31 January 2024

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regularly review pupils’ therapy and curriculum programmes to respond to their changing needs. This helps pupils to achieve well during their time in the school.

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Subject curriculums are designed well. The school has identified the building blocks of knowledge that pupils should learn. Pupils build their knowledge in a logical order.

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Due to the nature of the school, some teachers deliver more than one subject curriculum. Mostly, they have secure subject knowledge that enables them to deliver the curriculum well. Typically, teachers identify and address gaps in what pupils know and understand. However, in a small number of subjects, some teachers’ subject knowledge is not as secure as it should be. Occasionally, this prevents some pupils from achieving as well as they could.

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The school has invested in high-quality texts that reflect pupils’ interests to engage them with reading. Pupils practise reading regularly. Those who find reading difficult receive effective support from skilled staff to catch up with their reading knowledge. This develops their confidence and fluency in reading.

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Staff understand pupils’ social, emotional and mental health needs and show high levels of empathy towards pupils. The school manages risk very well and trained nurses help pupils to be safe. Staff have high expectations of pupils’ behaviour. There are clear and well-established routines for pupils to follow. This helps them to successfully engage in their learning. The school has a calm and orderly atmosphere.

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The school uses a range of effective strategies, including rewards, that encourage pupils to attend school when they are well enough. Most pupils show improved attendance. The school liaises closely with pupils’ home schools to ensure that they make the transition into hospital education and back out again as smooth as possible.

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Pupils receive a bespoke programme of personal development that supports their mental health and well-being. They learn about age-appropriate relationships and sex education and health education. External speakers make pupils aware of risks, such as knife crime. Pupils enjoy raising money for charity.

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Pupils’ preparedness for their future lives is enhanced by a well-designed careers information and guidance programme. Some older pupils have limited opportunities for work-related placements. The length of admission to the school can be relatively short. Despite this, the school is taking effective steps to strengthen the work-experience programme. When pupils are ready to leave the school, staff continue to support pupils.

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Staff are proud to work at the school. They appreciate time they receive to adapt the curriculum. Staff spoke positively of the support that they receive for their well-being and their workload. They benefit from the expertise of a multidisciplinary team of health professionals.

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Governors bring a range of relevant skills to their role. They understand the nuances of this distinctive school, including its strengths and priorities for improvement. Governors 30 and 31 January 2024

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support and challenge the school effectively to continue to improve the quality of education that pupils receive.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 A small number of staff lack aspects of the subject knowledge required to deliver curriculum content well. This occasionally hinders how well some pupils achieve. The school should ensure that staff deliver all aspects of the curriculum well.

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Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good. This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act. Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

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Background

This is the first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in July 2018.

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How can I feed back my views?

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. 30 and 31 January 2024

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Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

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Further information

In the report, ‘disadvantaged pupils’ is used to mean pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND); pupils who meet the definition of children in need of help and protection ; pupils receiving statutory local authority support from a social worker; and pupils who otherwise meet the criteria used for deciding the school’s pupil premium funding (this includes pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years, looked after children (children in local authority care) and/or children who left care through adoption or another formal route). 30 and 31 January 2024

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form

Appropriate authority The governing body

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form

Date of previous inspection 17 July 2018, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 Cloughside College is a community hospital special school. It caters for pupils who are admitted to Prestwich Hospital or Fairfield Hospital. All pupils have mental health presentations and are referred to hospital for medical and psychiatric care.  The school operates from three sites.  Junction 17 and the Gardener Unit are two adjacent sites based at Greater Manchester Mental Health Foundation Trust, Bury New Road, Prestwich, Manchester M25 3BL. Junction 17 provides for pupils who have been admitted to hospital on mental health grounds. Most of these pupils remain registered with their home school. Most pupils in Junction 17 are in-patients. A small number of pupils are educated separately in the Gardener Unit, which is medium secure forensic unit. This is because they are deemed to require care and treatment within a secure mental health service.  The Hope and Horizon Unit is based in Pennine House, Fairfield Hospital, Rochdale Old

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Information about this school

Road, Bury BL9 7TD. This unit provides for pupils who have been admitted to hospital 30 and 31 January 2024

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on mental health grounds. Most of these pupils remain registered with their home school.  Most pupils across sites are in Year 11 and in the sixth form. Hospital length of stay is often unknown on admission. Pupils’ time at the school varies. The average length of a pupil’s stay at Junction 17 and the Hope and Horizon Unit is between four to nine weeks. Pupils at the Gardener Unit stay longer, with an average stay of six months.  The school currently provides education for pupils from Years 8 to 13. All pupils are dual registered with a mainstream school.  A small number of pupils have an education, health and care plan.  The school does not make use of alternative providers.  The school meets the requirements of the provider access legislation, which requires schools to provide pupils in Years 8 to 13 with information and engagement about approved technical-education qualifications and apprenticeships.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspections are a point-in-time judgement about the quality of a school’s education provision.  This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors spoke with the headteacher, deputy headteacher, other leaders and staff. The lead inspector spoke with a multidisciplinary team consisting of nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists and therapists.  Inspectors visited all three of the school’s sites.  Inspectors spoke with representatives of the governing body, including the chair of governors. They also spoke with two representatives of the local authority.  Inspectors spoke with pupils about their experiences in school and their views on behaviour and bullying. Inspectors also observed pupils’ behaviour during lessons and

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Information about this inspection

at breaktimes.  Inspectors reviewed a range of documents, including self-evaluation documents, improvement plans, minutes of governing body meetings and records of pupils’ behaviour and attendance.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors reviewed the single central record, took account of the views of leaders, staff and pupils and considered the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in art and design, mathematics and personal, social, health and economic education. For each deep dive, they held discussions about the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke with teachers, spoke with some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. An inspector observed some younger pupils read to familiar staff. 30 and 31 January 2024

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 Inspectors met with subject leaders to review other areas of the curriculum, including English.  Inspectors considered the responses to Ofsted Parent View, including the free-text comments. The inspectors considered the responses to Ofsted’s online surveys for staff and pupils.

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Inspection team

Ahmed Marikar, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Paul Edmondson Ofsted Inspector 30 and 31 January 2024

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regulates and inspects 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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