Lawrence House

Inspection of Lawrence House The Coach House, Dean Terrace, Park Bridge, Ashton-Under-Lyne OL6 8AJ

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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 Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

Does the school meet the independent school standards?

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school provides a calm and nurturing environment for pupils. For example, the school grounds provide pupils with a peaceful environment which they enjoy. Before joining the school, pupils have experienced significant turmoil in their lives. Staff support them to try and feel more positive about themselves and education.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school wants the best for its pupils. Nevertheless, the school’s expectations for pupils’ achievement are not high enough. Staff know pupils very well. This helps staff to settle pupils into school life. The school prioritises helping pupils to develop the skills that they need to learn successfully. In many instances, it achieves this goal. However, on occasion, pupils do not display positive attitudes to learning. They sometimes choose to opt out of lessons.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school uses a range of strategies to help pupils to improve their behaviour. However, on occasion, staff struggle to manage pupils’ behaviour consistently well. Although pupils improve their attendance when they join the school, they do not attend school as often as they should. This impacts on how well pupils can achieve.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy their time and experiences outside of lessons. For example, pupils look forward to going to the local music studio to write and record their own music.

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better?

The school caters for pupils who have had a turbulent time in both their academic and personal lives. Moreover, all pupils have special educational needs and/or disabilities. The school prioritises securing pupils’ readiness for learning in its curriculum. This equips pupils to access academic subjects when they are ready.

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better?

In some subjects, the school has not thought out the specific knowledge that pupils will need to learn to achieve qualifications by the end of key stage 4. Moreover, the school has not ensured that it establishes pupils’ starting points so that pupils build on what they already know and can do. Often, pupils do not have the prior knowledge needed to make sense of new learning. Furthermore, the school has not considered carefully enough the order in which knowledge should be taught so that it is logically sequenced. This hinders how well some pupils achieve.

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better?

The school’s assessment strategies are underdeveloped. This means that sometimes teachers do not identify and address any gaps and misconceptions in pupils’ knowledge and understanding. Consequently, some pupils’ knowledge is insecure.

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better?

The school has made some progress in promoting a love of reading and writing. There is a small selection of books in the classroom library. However, these do not provide pupils with access to a sufficiently wide range of high-quality literature.

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better?

The school has not ensured that those pupils at the early stages of learning to read receive the help and support that they need. The school does not identify and 5 to 7 March 2024 address the specific gaps in these pupils’ reading knowledge. This impacts on how well these pupils can access learning across the curriculum.

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better?

Pupils’ attitudes to their learning are inconsistent. They are often late to lessons or choose not to attend them. Moreover, pupils sometimes do not treat staff or school property with respect. The school does not provide some pupils with the consistent help and support that they need.

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better?

The school uses pupils’ education, health and care (EHC) plans to determine the support that pupils need across the curriculum. It works with other professionals to meet pupils’ special educational needs and/or disabilities. The school works well with commissioners, parents and carers. This enables these partners to support pupils’ education.

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better?

The school has set out a programme to support pupils’ personal development. It has recently introduced resources to support teachers with the delivery of personal, social and health education (PSHE). Pupils learn about different religions and cultures. For example, pupils visit the nearby mosque. They also learn about the foods eaten in different countries. The school ensures that pupils receive appropriate careers guidance to support them in making decisions about their lives beyond the school.

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better?

The school is considerate of staff workload. It has recently introduced new online systems. These have reduced unnecessary paperwork, which has allowed staff to focus on teaching.

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better?

The proprietor has not ensured that leaders provide a high quality of education for pupils. It has identified some of the school’s weaknesses. It has made sure that leaders have started work to improve the curriculum offer for pupils. However, this work is in its earliest stages.

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better?

The proprietor has ensured that the school complies with the independent school standards (‘the standards’). It performs diligent checks on the suitability of staff as a part of its recruitment processes. The proprietor ensures that staff are well trained to carry out their safeguarding duties. In addition, it has a suitable accessibility plan so that the school fulfils its duties as set out in schedule 10 of the Equality Act 2010.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and proprietor)

 The school has not finalised its curriculum thinking in some subjects. Teachers are not clear about the specific knowledge that they should be teaching. This impacts 5 to 7 March 2024 on how well pupils achieve. The school should finalise its curriculum thinking in these subjects by identifying what pupils need to learn and when.  The assessment strategies used in the different subjects are underdeveloped. Teachers do not check sufficiently well how well pupils are learning in these subjects. This means that gaps and misconceptions in pupils’ knowledge may be missed. The school should develop its assessment approaches to ensure that teachers identify how well pupils have learned and remembered the curriculum.  The school has not ensured that it identifies struggling readers. These pupils do not receive the help and support that they need to learn to read well. The school should ensure that it identifies any pupils who find reading hard, put in suitable

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(Information for the school and proprietor)

support and ensure that these pupils learn to read fluently and accurately with understanding.  The school’s expectations for pupils’ behaviour are not high enough. Pupils do not display consistently positive attitudes to school or to their learning. The school should raise its expectations for pupils’ behaviour and support them in developing more positive attitudes to school.

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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. 5 to 7 March 2024

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School details

Unique reference number 146182 DfE registration number 357/6006

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School details

Inspection number 10320419 Type of school Other independent school

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 10 and 11 December 2019 5 to 7 March 2024

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Information about this school

 The school’s previous standard inspection took place on 10 and 11 December 2019.  The school is located at The Coach House, Dean Terrace, Park Bridge, Ashton- Under-Lyne OL6 8AJ.  A new headteacher has been appointed since the previous inspection. He took up post one day before the start of the inspection.  All pupils who attend the school have an EHC plan. The school caters for pupils who are at risk of radicalisation or have been criminally exploited by gangs.  The school does not use alternative provision.  At the time of the inspection, the school did not have any pupils in the post-16 provision.  The school is registered to admit up to four pupils.

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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

 Inspections are a point-in-time judgement about the quality of a school’s provision.  This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with leaders and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors met with the headteacher, the director of education and the chair of the proprietor body.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: English (including early reading), mathematics and PSHE. For each deep dive, inspectors held discussions about the curriculum, looked at curriculum plans, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors: reviewed the single central record; took account of the views of the school, staff and pupils; and considered the extent to which the school has created an open and honest

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Information about this inspection

culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.  The inspectors spoke with parents to seek their views about the school. 5 to 7 March 2024  Inspectors examined school policies and other documents to check the school’s compliance with the standards and other requirements. These included: minutes from the management body; information on pupils’ progress; the school’s evaluation of its own performance; and its development plan. Behaviour and attendance records were also scrutinised.  As part of their checks on the standards, inspectors toured the school premises, accompanied by the headteacher.

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Inspection team

Stuart Perkins, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Mark Hazzard Ofsted Inspector 5 to 7 March 2024 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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