Cavendish View School

Inspection of Cavendish View School 99 Cavendish Drive, Liverpool, Merseyside L9 1NB

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Overall effectiveness Good

The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Good Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness Good

Does the school meet the independent school standards?

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What is it like to attend this school?

Cavendish View is a happy, nurturing school. Pupils know that the school expects them to achieve and behave well. They try their best to live up to these expectations. Pupils’ behaviour improves over time. Most pupils behave well in school and learning is rarely disturbed. Pupils are well prepared for their next steps in education.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school clearly understands pupils’ individual needs. Pupils are supported to take risks and approach their next steps with increasing confidence. They told inspectors that they appreciate the staff who care for them. This helps pupils to feel safe in school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school carefully considers pupils’ development. This ranges from the curriculum design to personalised approaches to support pupils’ behaviour. All pupils have special educational needs and/or disabilities. The school combines appropriate therapeutic support, a curriculum designed around pupils’ needs and strong relationships with parents and carers to help pupils achieve well.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils benefit from bespoke packages of support. The school communicates with parents and other professionals effectively to shape pupils’ provision. For example, preparing pupils for what to expect when they visit the dentist. This helps pupils to develop essential life skills. They learn to understand and appreciate difference and believe that it is important that everyone feels welcome.

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better?

The school has made considerable improvements to the curriculum since the previous inspection. Pupils now learn a curriculum that includes a broad range of subjects and, for the most part, supports them to learn well. The school has given careful consideration to the design of the curriculum, alongside providing well- thought-out training for staff. Staff have suitable subject knowledge to explain ideas clearly to pupils. Staff appreciate the support that the school gives them to develop in their roles. They teach in a way that interests and engages pupils. That said, the order that pupils learn key knowledge in a small number of subjects hinders how well pupils learn. Where this happens, pupils do not achieve as well as they should.

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better?

In some subjects, such as reading and mathematics, teachers collect useful information about pupils’ learning. This helps them to design learning activities that build on what pupils already know and can do. However, in other subjects, teachers do not always gather the most useful information about what pupils have learned. As a result, some gaps and misconceptions in pupils’ learning go unchecked. Moreover, teachers do not have the information that they need to craft lessons that promote pupils’ learning as well as they should.

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better?

Staff are skilled at teaching phonics. They benefit from ongoing training that helps them to fully understand the school’s approach to early reading. Staff model sounds 21 to 23 May 2024 with accuracy. They quickly identify pupils who need extra help. This extra help ensures that pupils develop the knowledge and confidence that they need to read with success. The school ensures that pupils benefit from a wide range of books that interest them, as well as books that reflect life in modern Britain.

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better?

The school takes time to identify and understand pupils’ additional needs. It uses this to ensure that pupils receive the support that they need to learn successfully.

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better?

Pupils’ well-being is at the heart of the school’s work. Staff are highly committed to supporting pupils through a range of excellent strategies and approaches that help pupils to feel safe and secure. Pupils learn about different risks and how to manage them, how to learn alongside others and how to regulate their emotions. Also, pupils learn to tolerate difference and gain a secure understanding of different people in society. Pupils leave the school well prepared for their next steps.

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better?

Pupils’ rates of attendance improve over time. The school offers bespoke support for families to help pupils to be in school every day. It provides effective support and challenge when pupils do not attend as well as they should. The well-established relationships that exist between the school and parents help this support to be effective for most pupils.

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better?

The proprietor makes regular checks on the quality of education that pupils receive. It provides effective support and challenge to the school to fulfil its statutory responsibilities and drive improvement. It has the depth of knowledge of the independent school standards (‘the standards’) required and ensures that these are met consistently.

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better?

The school complies with the requirements of 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)

 In a small number of subjects, the order in which key knowledge should be taught is not sufficiently clear. Where this is the case, pupils do not learn as well as they could. The school should make sure that the sequence of these subject curriculums is carefully thought out.  Some of the school’s assessment strategies do not give teachers the most helpful information about what pupils know and remember. Sometimes, this leads to teachers being unable to identify and address pupils’ missed and forgotten learning as well as they should. The school should make sure that its assessment strategies provide useful information so that teachers can design learning activities that help pupils to learn well. 21 to 23 May 2024

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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. 21 to 23 May 2024

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School details

Unique reference number 148199 DfE registration number 341/6019

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School details

Inspection number 10322518 Type of school Independent special school

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School details

Annual fees (day pupils) £27,500 to £64,856

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School details

Email address charlotte.liley@ambitoeducation.co.uk

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 10 to 12 May 2022 21 to 23 May 2024

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Information about this school

 The school’s previous standard inspection took place between 10 to 12 May 2022.  The school operates from premises at 99 Cavendish Drive, Liverpool, Merseyside L9 1NB.  The school does not use any alternative provision.  The headteacher and deputy headteacher have joined the school since the previous inspection.  All pupils who attend the school have an education, health and care plan. Pupils have a range of social, emotional and mental health needs.  The school is registered to admit up to 42 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 education provision.  This was the second 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.  Inspectors met with the headteacher and the chair of the proprietor body, who is also the chair of governors.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics, personal, social and health education and history. For each deep dive, inspectors held discussions about the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning 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 leaders, staff and pupils; and

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Information about this inspection

considered the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.  An inspector carried out a tour of the premises.  Inspectors reviewed a range of documentation to check the school’s compliance with the standards. 21 to 23 May 2024  An inspector listened to pupils read to a trusted adult.  Inspectors considered the free-text responses to Ofsted Parent View.  There were no responses to Ofsted’s staff or pupil surveys.  Inspectors spoke with pupils and staff to gather their views of the school.

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Inspection team

Jane Dennis, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Tim Sherriff Ofsted Inspector 21 to 23 May 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

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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