Hopespring Sunderland

Inspection of Hopespring Sunderland 10 Sea View Road West, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear SR2 9HA

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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 Good

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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?

Hopespring Sunderland is an inclusive and welcoming place to learn. The school carefully weaves learning and high levels of care together to help pupils reach their potential. Before coming here, many pupils found attending and engaging in school challenging. Now they talk about their learning with enthusiasm. Pupils feel safe. They know they have adults who want them to be their very best.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school has high ambitions for what pupils can achieve. Pupils want to do well and the school helps them to do so. The curriculum helps pupils to have important knowledge and skills to move on to their preferred next steps in learning with confidence.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school carefully supports pupils to meet the high expectations set for behaviour. As a result, pupils behave well. Warm and caring professional relationships exist between staff and pupils. Pupils know they have key adults to help them. Parents and carers are effusive in their praise for the school. They feel the school supports pupils well to succeed.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Alongside academic learning the school ensures pupils have a wide range of other experiences. For example, pupils work alongside trainee doctors to break down barriers and build confidence to engage with the health service. They also visit local businesses.

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better?

The school’s curriculum centres on pupils having the important skills and knowledge to succeed in their next steps in learning. The school has carefully considered how their curriculum builds pupils’ academic and social skills. All pupils have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The school ensures that all staff know and understand how to support the individual needs of pupils. Staff are experts in supporting the well-being of pupils.

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better?

Pupils benefit from a broad curriculum. The curriculum helps pupils to re-engage in their learning. The school ensures that pupils in both key stage 3 and 4 learn the skills to achieve well. Where possible, the school links learning to real-life skills. Pupils use their mathematics knowledge to build go-karts or refurbish a music room. They learn about key local historic information such as the history of Sunderland and what community means to them.

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better?

Pupils who still need support to master reading receive daily phonics lessons. They read and apply their sounds with increasing confidence. The school uses initiatives such as ‘extreme readers’ to raise the profile of reading. Pupils talk with enthusiasm about how they are improving their own skills and knowledge. For example, increasing their independence when preparing food. In some subjects, the school has not precisely identified the key knowledge the pupils need to know. This limits the school’s ability to make checks on pupils’ learning over time. 22 to 24 October 2024 The school sets clear expectations for how pupils should behave. Pupils demonstrate improving attitudes to learning. They want to do well. The school is a calm place to learn. This helps pupils attend school more regularly. Pupils’ attendance is higher than it has been, sometimes significantly so, in their previous schools.

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better?

Almost all pupils go on to further study once they leave. The school carefully plans pupils’ transition to college. The school supports pupils to consider a range of options. Adults support pupils with this in different ways. For example, they model and practise using public transport. This helps pupils to be successful and sustain their engagement with learning beyond the school.

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better?

The school carefully plans wider opportunities for pupils. These opportunities support pupils to go on work experience, explore forests and experience outdoor activities such as fishing. In school, pupils reflect on recent local, national and global events. This helps pupils to understand different viewpoints and cultures.

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better?

The school supports staff well. Staff are proud to work here. They are well- supported by leaders and the proprietor to live out the school’s aims and ethos. The school carefully plans regular training opportunities to share best practice. Daily briefings help all staff to continue to support pupils effectively. Staff value the opportunities to learn from each other.

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better?

Leaders and the proprietor review the independent school standards (the standards) regularly. During the inspection, the school needed to address a small number of the standards. The school resolved these promptly. The school also ensures that it complies with 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 some subjects the curriculum does not identify with sufficient precision the key knowledge pupils need to know and remember. This hinders how well pupils are able to connect and embed knowledge over time. The school should develop these subjects so the key knowledge pupils need to know is clear.  The school does not routinely make the most of opportunities to check on what pupils know and remember. This weakens how well the school tracks what pupils are remembering over time and how well they measure the impact of curriculum changes. The school should ensure that the checks it makes on pupils' learning accurately identify the progress pupils are making through the curriculum. 22 to 24 October 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. 22 to 24 October 2024

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School details

Unique reference number 147648 DfE registration number 394/6005

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School details

Inspection number 10342156 Type of school Other Independent School

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School details

Annual fees (day pupils) £28,070 to £32,259

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School details

Email address office@hopespringcharity.org

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School details

Date of previous inspection 28 to 30 September 2021 22 to 24 October 2024

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Information about this school

 This is the school’s second standard inspection since it opened. Since the last standard school inspection, there has been a material change inspection in November 2022 which increased the capacity of the school from 16 to 30 pupils.  The school is part of the Hopespring charity and aims to meet the needs of pupils aged 11 to 16 years. Most pupils have social, emotional and mental health needs. Many pupils have an education, health and care (EHC) plan.  Most pupils are at risk of permanent exclusion or have been permanently excluded from their mainstream schools.  Pupils have access to a wide range of therapeutic support from teaching staff who are trained as therapists.  The school operates from three sites across Sunderland, Tyne and Wear: – 10 Sea View Road West, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear SR2 9HA – Bell Street, Sunderland, SR4 6JR – 9A The King’s Road, Southwick, Sunderland, SR5 2LH  The school admits pupils from a range of providers referred via the Sunderland

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Information about this school

local authority vulnerable pupil panel.  Eight pupils are dual registered and spend one day each week under the care of the referring school.  Pupils join the school at different times of the year.  The school does not use any alternative provision.  During the inspection a medical room was under refurbishment at one of the sites. There was a temporary medical room available for pupils to use.

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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.  Inspections discussions any continued impact of the pandemic with leaders and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  The inspectors met with representatives from the proprietor body, the executive head teacher, operations lead and leaders from each of the school’s sites. 22 to 24 October 2024  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: English including reading, mathematics, society and personal development. For each deep dive, inspectors held discussions about the curriculum, looked at curriculum plans, visited lessons, spoke to staff, spoke to pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  The 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.  Inspectors reviewed the school’s policies and documentation relating to pupils’ welfare and to their education. They talked with staff and pupils about pupils’ personal development and pupils’ behaviour and attitudes. They observed pupils’ behaviour in lessons and around the school.  Inspectors checked the school’s compliance with the standards. As part of these checks, an inspector toured the school’s three premises, accompanied by school leaders.  Inspectors considered the views of parents through phone calls and responses to the online survey for parents, Ofsted Parent View. Inspectors considered the views of staff through meetings. Inspectors considered the views of pupils through pupil discussions. For some pupil voice meetings adults were present from the school.

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Inspection team

Emily Stevens, lead inspector His Majesty's Inspector

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Inspection team

Bernard Clark Ofsted Inspector 22 to 24 October 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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