Core Training and Development limited

Inspection of Core Training and Development limited Network House, Ashfield way, Leeds LS12 5JB

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

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

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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?

Pupils attend Core Development and Training as an alternative provision. All pupils remain dual registered with their home school. The school provides bespoke support to pupils, helping them to learn how to manage their emotions and behaviour effectively.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school has high expectations for pupils’ behaviour. These are shared clearly with pupils when they join the school. Pupils trust the adults who support them. They form positive relationships with staff at the school. Staff care about pupils and support them well. They help pupils to improve their attitudes towards their education. These relationships contribute to many pupils significantly improving both their behaviour and attendance.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are very positive about their time at the school. Many enjoy the smaller class sizes and other changes to the learning environment compared to their home school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school has significantly improved the design of the curriculum since its previous inspection. Pupils now study a curriculum that is more ambitious and better structured. However, there remain limitations in how effectively it is taught. As a result, gaps in pupils’ knowledge are not consistently well addressed. Pupils’ knowledge of the curriculum is inconsistent.

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better?

The school has considered how its curriculum accounts for pupils’ differing starting points. It has redeveloped the curriculum in most subjects. Curriculum plans are now more detailed and cover all subjects taught at the school. They provide tutors with clarity on what pupils will learn in each subject and when. The school combines information provided by the home school with its own assessments to inform what pupils study. This helps to provide continuity for pupils joining the school at different stages and with different prior knowledge.

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better?

Tutors use the improved subject curriculums to teach lessons that help pupils to build knowledge in a logical sequence. However, pupils receive a variable quality of education. Sometimes, the activities or approaches that tutors use do not support pupils to remember the most important knowledge. Although tutors check on what pupils know, they do not consistently adapt their teaching to address pupils’ misconceptions or gaps in knowledge. This limits how well some pupils learn the curriculum. As a result, pupils’ understanding of the curriculum varies.

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better?

The school prioritises reading. All pupils have regular, individual support to improve their reading. This helps them to become more confident, for example when reading passages of text in lessons. Staff currently lack the training that they need to teach the school’s phonics scheme. 4 to 6 February 2025 The school receives information about pupils’ previous education, including about their special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), when pupils join the school. It uses this well to support pupils’ social, emotional and mental health needs. This is at the centre of the school’s approach. Pupils recognise that staff help them to improve their behaviour. However, staff currently lack the knowledge of the most effective ways to support the changing and varied needs of pupils at the school consistently well. This includes ways to support pupils with SEND other than social, emotional and mental health needs.

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better?

The school’s personal, social and health (PSHE) curriculum is ambitious. Staff teach lessons that engage pupils in discussions about important topics, such as discrimination. Pupils are taught about relationships and sex education in an age- appropriate way. Leaders adapt the curriculum to address risks that pupils may face within the community, such as how to manage risks associated with drugs or alcohol. This helps pupils to learn to keep themselves safe outside of school. Some topics, such as learning about other faiths and cultures, is less developed. This limits pupils’ knowledge of people with different backgrounds.

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better?

The school provides pupils with some opportunities to enhance their wider development. For example, pupils access sessions on gardening. However, the school does not routinely plan these opportunities across pupils’ time at the school. Consequently, pupils’ experiences vary. This is particularly the case for pupils who attend the school on a short-term placement.

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better?

The school works with pupils’ home schools to ensure that they receive appropriate careers advice and guidance. During PSHE lessons, pupils learn about different career pathways and opportunities for employment. To support this, pupils take part in activities such as mock interviews or consider financial education in mathematics. This helps to inform them about opportunities when they leave school.

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better?

Pupils benefit from the increased pastoral support and smaller group environment that they experience in the school. Staff teach pupils to understand their emotions and regulate their behaviours effectively. This results in pupils receiving significantly fewer sanctions for poor behaviour than they have previously. Pupils receive recognition for meeting the school’s expectations.

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better?

Although absence remains high, almost all pupils have improved their attendance since they began attending the school. The school’s positive relationships with pupils and their families supports this. This increase in attendance reflects pupils’ improving attitudes towards their education.

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better?

Staff enjoy working at the school. They feel well supported, including in relation to managing their own workload. The school and the proprietor has acted effectively to address previously unmet independent school standards. This includes work to strengthen the quality of the school’s curriculum. Leaders make appropriate checks, including drawing on external expertise, to inform their view of the school’s effectiveness. They use this information to refine their ongoing actions to improve the school. However, school leaders, including the proprietor, understand that there 4 to 6 February 2025 is more to do to ensure that pupils receive a consistently high-quality education. Although the school is taking steps to address this, the impact of these is not consistently realised. As a result, pupils still receive an inconsistent experience at the school..

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better?

The school meets all of the independent school standards and fulfils 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)

 Sometimes, staff do not adapt their teaching effectively to respond to the differing prior knowledge or misconceptions of pupils. When this happens, gaps in pupils’ knowledge go unaddressed and they struggle to understand increasingly complex ideas. The school should ensure that staff know and use effective strategies to address gaps and misconceptions in pupils’ knowledge so that they build their learning securely over time.  The way that the school provides wider opportunities to pupils is not as well considered as it should be. Some pupils do not consistently benefit from experiences to enrich their education, limiting their ability to develop their talents and interests. The school should consider how it can overcome barriers, such as transport, to provide all pupils with high-quality experiences that enhance the curriculum.  Some staff lack specific knowledge that would support them in their role, such as

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(Information for the school and proprietor)

about certain types of SEND. Sometimes, this limits the effectiveness of the support that staff provide to pupils. The school should ensure that staff are equipped with the knowledge and skills they require to support all pupils effectively across the subjects that they teach.

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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. 4 to 6 February 2025

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School details

Unique reference number 148759 DfE registration number 383/6015

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School details

Inspection number 10342185 Type of school Other Independent School

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School details

Annual fees (day pupils) £125 to £200 per day

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School details

Website www.coretraininganddevelopment.co.uk

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School details

Email address info@coretraininganddevelopment.org

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School details

Date of previous inspection 7 to 9 February 2023 4 to 6 February 2025

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Information about this school

 Core Training and Development is an independent school for pupils at risk of permanent exclusion. It operates as an alternative provision.  Pupils join Core Training and Development at non-standard times and for different lengths of placement. Most pupils join the school following a referral from their home school. They remain dual registered with their home school.  The school received two progress monitoring inspections since the previous standard inspection. These took place on 12 th June 2024 and 21 st November 2023.  The school is registered to provide education for up to 35 pupils aged from 8 to 16. The school currently only admits pupils aged between 11 and 16.  The school does not use any alternative provision.  The school operates from a single site. It is located at: Network house, Ashfield way, Leeds, Leeds, LS12 5JB

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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

 Inspections are a point-in-time evaluation about the quality of a school's education provision.  Inspectors discussed any continued impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  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.  During the inspection, inspectors met with the headteacher and proprietor. They also met with other leaders, including those responsible for safeguarding, behaviour, attendance and personal development.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: English, mathematics, science and PSHE. For each deep dive, inspectors held discussions about the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their

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Information about this inspection

learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  Inspectors also reviewed curriculum plans, held discussions with leaders and visited lessons to understand the quality of the curriculum in other subjects. 4 to 6 February 2025  Inspectors looked at a range of documentation regarding the support pupils with SEND receive. They looked at the quality of the provision for pupils with SEND in lessons.  Inspectors looked at a range of information regarding behaviour. They observed the behaviour of pupils in classrooms and at social times.  The views of pupils and staff who responded to Ofsted’s surveys were considered. Inspectors also held discussions with staff and pupils at the school.  Inspectors considered the views of parents through the responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire for parents, Ofsted Parent View.

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The school’s progress in meeting previously failed standards

During the inspection we checked whether the school now meets the independent school standards that it was judged to have failed at its previous progress monitoring inspection on 12 June 2024.

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The school’s progress in meeting previously failed standards

 The outcome of this part of the inspection is: the school now meets the previously failed standards. Part 1. Quality of education provided Paragraphs 2(1), 2(1)(a), 2(1)(b), 2(1)(b)(i)  Previously, the school had not made sufficient progress in relation to the development of schemes of work to meet these standards. This was particularly in relation to subjects in the wider curriculum. In these subjects, schemes did not set out what pupils needed to learn clearly.  The school has strengthened the curriculum plans across each of the subjects in the school, including the wider curriculum. These outline what pupils will learn and in what order. The school has prepared curriculum resources to support the teaching of most subjects. The school has also considered how it will ensure that the curriculum reflects the experiences of pupils who join the school at different times and for different lengths of placement. For example, the school now collects

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The school’s progress in meeting previously failed standards

information from the pupils’ home schools about pupils previous learning. It supplements this with its own assessments that pupils complete when they join the school.  The previously unmet standards are now met. Part 8. Quality of leadership in and management of schools Paragraphs 34(1), 34(1)(a), 34(1)(b)  At the previous inspection, several standards remained unmet. These related to the quality of education.  Leaders, including the proprietor, have improved their understanding of the independent school standards. They have used this to inform the improvements identified during this inspection. The school has taken decisive steps to address the standards that were unmet in relation to its curriculum. 4 to 6 February 2025  The school has worked alongside external partners to gather feedback on their work to improve the curriculum, and other aspects of the school. It has used this to develop further actions, such as training for staff, to build on these changes. As

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The school’s progress in meeting previously failed standards

a result, pupils now follow a curriculum that is appropriate. The school has incorporated this feedback, and information from the proprietor’s own checks, into its updated action plan.  The previously unmet standards are now met.

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The school now meets the following standards

 2(1) The standard in this paragraph is met if- - 2(1)(a) the proprietor ensures that a written policy on the curriculum, supported by appropriate plans and schemes of work, which provides for the matters specified in sub-paragraph (2) is drawn up and implemented effectively; and - 2(1)(b) the written policy, plans and schemes of work- - 2(1)(b)(i) take into account the ages, aptitudes and needs of all pupils, including those pupils with an EHC plan; and  34(1) The standard about the quality of leadership and management is met if the proprietor ensures that persons with leadership and management responsibilities at the school- - 34(1)(a) demonstrate good skills and knowledge appropriate to their role so that the independent school standards are met consistently; - 34(1)(b) fulfil their responsibilities effectively so that the independent school standards are met consistently; and

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Inspection team

Thomas Wraith, lead inspector His Majesty's Inspector

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Inspection team

Matthew Vellensworth His Majesty's Inspector 4 to 6 February 2025 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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