Wells Park

Inspection report for residential special school - Wells Park 1 Wells Park Wells Park School, Lambourne Road, Chigwell, Essex IG7 6NN Residential provision inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this residential special school

Wells Park School is a residential primary school which is part of the Beckmead Trust. The school caters for children aged between five and 11 who experience social, emotional and mental health difficulties.

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Information about this residential special school

There are 59 children on roll. There were 40 residential pupils at the time of this inspection. Residential pupils board at the school for four nights a week. The school is split into four houses, all on the school site. Several children were spoken to during this inspection.

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Information about this residential special school

The head of boarding has been in post since September 2021 and is working towards a relevant qualification.

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Information about this residential special school

The inspectors only inspected the social care provision at this school.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The residential special school provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the school contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people.

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outstanding

Date of last inspection: 5 December 2023

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding Inspection report for residential special school - Wells Park 2

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outstanding

Children are extremely settled at the school. They are relaxed and comfortable in their houses. Children know the evening routines well and thrive from the very clear routines and boundaries that staff have in place.

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outstanding

Children are continuously empowered to meet challenging and ambitious individual targets. They fully engage in skills programmes. Children’s achievements are celebrated and rewarded, from steps to independence to being out socialising and managing in groups. As well as receiving awards and badges to wear proudly to show their achievements, staff provide children with affirmation and promote their confidence and self-worth.

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outstanding

Children spoke positively about the school and bloom in their environment. They have extremely positive relationships with staff, who know them well. Staff show compassion and empathy when supporting children who are struggling to manage their emotions, helping children to manage difficult feelings.

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outstanding

Children are given the opportunity to share their views. They have a say in what activities they wish to do in the evening. Staff support children to reinforce positive behaviour through a ‘token’ reward system. This creative approach gives children additional opportunities to choose activities, based on the number of tokens they have earned. Children were very enthusiastic about this approach.

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outstanding

Care staff and education staff work together to support children’s development, both academically and socially. The token system means that staff can easily know if a child has had a positive or difficult day. This same system is then used in the evenings to support consistency, with children understanding the rules and boundaries in place.

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outstanding

Children participate in a wide range of activities in residence. They play games such as chess together, decorate biscuits, watch movies and enjoy facilities such as the swimming pool, youth club and playground, and going to football practice and spending time with the resident guinea pigs. Children spoke excitedly about the different activities they take part in, both on site and off site.

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outstanding

Children also enjoy time out with their peers and are kept highly active. An excellent range of activities are routinely offered for children off site. For example, children have enjoyed meals out as a group, meeting Santa Claus and spending time at exciting, stimulating parks and centres with trampolines and soft play.

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outstanding

Staff were flexible and dynamic in supporting children over the summer holidays. This excellent and responsive approach enabled children to remain living with their families. Leaders and staff support children who have moved on. For example, staff Inspection report for residential special school - Wells Park 3 provided one child with highly effective emotional support, described by a family member as ‘amazing’, during an incredibly difficult time in their life.

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outstanding

Staff are innovative and have created wonderfully illustrated memory books for children that detail the activities that they have taken part in at the school. These are lovely books for children to take with them when they leave the school, to look back on all the experiences and opportunities they had.

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outstanding

Staff are also inspirational and support residents in the local community by involving the children in charitable and fundraising events.

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outstanding

The children say they feel safe. Children are significantly safer because of the care and support they receive. Children who have struggled in previous schools are thriving here. A parent said, ‘Since coming to this school, [name of child] has not had any incidents. Previously, they had been misunderstood and let down. That is not the case here. [Name of child] is thriving.’

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outstanding

The proactive senior leadership team meets twice a week to carefully review any issues that have arisen. They complete highly effective safeguarding evaluations, enabling them to identify trends and ensure that the neccesary support is in place for children.

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outstanding

The children want to be at this school. They have a sense of belonging and ownership of their environment when they stay. This has contributed to children not going missing.

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outstanding

Some children share bedrooms with their peers. Each arrangement is carefully assessed. Risk assessments are constantly kept under review. Children showed off their rooms and said they were proud to be with their friends, with whom they have shared interests.

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outstanding

The leadership team has excellent relationships with families and carers. Concerns are shared promptly and effectively. Leaders and managers attend any neccesary safeguarding meetings.

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outstanding

The safeguarding lead works extremely closely with safeguarding professionals, sharing new information regarding concerns for children’s welfare. Feedback from social workers was extremely positive. One social worker said, ‘The staff often go above and beyond what we expect of them.’ Another professional said they could not speak highly enough of the creative and dedicated safeguarding lead.

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outstanding

On the occasions when staff have had to impose consequences, they make sure they seek the children’s views. They work with children to ensure that they can fully Inspection report for residential special school - Wells Park 4 reflect on situations that have occurred. This has helped children to be better at decision-making.

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outstanding

Bullying is very rare at this school. When there has been behaviour that could be perceived as bullying, staff are curious and explore what has happened. They ensure that children know their experiences will not be dismissed or down-played. However, they have also worked to help children recognise how some children communicate in particular ways, and to develop empathy and understanding.

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outstanding

Children are empowered to help others. Following an incident, one child worked alongside a teacher to help children understand more about their culture and background. This has resulted in children having an increased awareness of different cultures and has been a very positive outcome for all involved.

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outstanding

Risk assessments relating to the premises are clear and thorough. Leaders and managers take the necessary action to ensure the environment is safe.

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outstanding

On one isolated occasion, leaders and managers had investigated a safeguarding incident but the rationale for taking no further action was not sufficiently detailed in the record.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers are highly aspirational and have created an exceptional, positive and supportive environment for staff and children. The school’s leadership team is highly involved in the residential provision and they are known to staff and children alike. There are highly positive interactions between children and staff, including the leadership team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders are inspirational. They encourage and enable staff to develop and grow in their roles. For example, some staff are completing their level 5 diploma. This helps staff to feel appreciated and valued at the school. This has helped to ensure staff want to remain at the school and has significantly contributed to the consistency and stability that children have experienced.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers have taken a creative approach to ensuring staff get the support they need. They identified that peer support would be beneficial and staff have started to receive training to enable them to lead reflective sessions with colleagues. Leaders also arranged additional support for staff over the summer holidays to assist in completing their level 3 qualification.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff complete the training they need to understand children’s needs and meet them. There is ongoing training throughout the year to support staff development. There are set themes for training each month which are the same for education and care staff. This helps ensure all staff working with the children can provide consistent care and support, as well as helping care staff feel part of the wider school. Inspection report for residential special school - Wells Park 5 The leaders have an excellent awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of the residential school. They avoid complacency and are always looking to develop and implement improvements, for example, looking at changing systems for recording to improve the prompts available to staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The governors are highly effective. They regularly visit the school. The safeguarding governor visits the residential provision weekly to observe practice. Governors also attend frequent meetings. Consequently, the residential and safeguarding governors have an excellent understanding of how the school works, the support that is offered and the positive impact it has on the children and families’ lives.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff receive regular, strong and effective supervision sessions. Records are detailed and reflective.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The leaders continue to use an electronic system to capture the different ways in which incidents and events are recorded and monitored. The leaders meet regularly and use this tool to review, analyse and collate information and to update records for staff. They also use it to capture the views of children and to ensure these are shared with external agencies when advocating for children. Inspection report for residential special school - Wells Park 6

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Point for improvement

 School leaders should ensure that the rationale for any safeguarding decision is clearly captured in records in a way that would be useful to the child or anyone else who may access these records in the future.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people using the social care common inspection framework. This inspection was carried out under the Children Act 1989 to assess the effectiveness of the service, how it meets the core functions of the service as set out in legislation, and to consider how well it complies with the national minimum standards. Inspection report for residential special school - Wells Park 7

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Residential special school details

Social care unique reference number: 2747505

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Residential special school details

Headteacher/teacher in charge: Matthew Surman

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Residential special school details

Type of school: Residential special school

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Residential special school details

Email address: msurman3@beckmeadtrust.org

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Inspectors

Dan Williams, Social Care Inspector Leanne Lyon, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for residential special school - Wells Park 8 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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