Compass Community School Athelstan Park

Inspection of Compass Community School Athelstan Park 114 Warminster Road, Westbury, Wiltshire BA13 3BR

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Inspection dates: 11 to 13 February 2025

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

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

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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?

Before joining the school, pupils have missed significant parts of their education. Consequently, they arrive with considerable gaps in their curriculum knowledge. However, the school does not help pupils to close these gaps sufficiently well. Pupils do not develop a solid foundation on which to build new knowledge. They experience variability in the quality of education and provision at the school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils have education, health and care (EHC) plans that determine how their special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) should be met. Therapy and education staff work together to support pupils’ social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs successfully. The school’s provision for pupils’ personal development, including encouragement to develop their interests, is strong.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy a wide range of enrichment experiences. They particularly look forward to cooking meals. They learn about healthy bodies, minds and how to stay safe, including online. Pupils are proud to take on responsibilities such as representing their peers in the school council.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Daily routines are well established. Positive working relationships exist between staff and pupils. Expectations for pupils’ behaviour are well understood. This contributes to the calm and orderly school environment. Pupils are safe. They enjoy social times together and work collaboratively in lessons.

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better?

Since the previous inspection in 2023, the school has undergone significant changes to its leadership and staffing. This has delayed the school’s work to refine the curriculum. It is currently identifying the essential knowledge it wants pupils to know and remember across the wider curriculum subjects. The proprietor body is supporting this work with the establishment of ‘clinics’ where curriculum subject experts are available to help colleagues. Nevertheless, this curriculum improvement work is in its infancy.

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better?

Pupils at the early stages of learning to read are taught phonics. They typically read books that are well matched to their phonics knowledge. Gaps in pupils’ phonics knowledge are identified. However, this information is not routinely used to secure pupils’ knowledge before they move on to learning new letters and sounds. Over time, this limits pupils’ ability to become fluent and efficient readers and writers.

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better?

Teachers’ knowledge of the subjects they teach and the curriculum sequence is at an early stage. This means that teachers do not accurately identify strengths and gaps in pupils’ subject knowledge. While pupils’ needs are identified, their ‘individual learning plan’ targets are too broad. The plans do not set out precisely the knowledge and skills the pupil needs to learn. Therefore, information from teachers’ checks is not used to plan pupils’ future learning effectively. Learning adaptations are sometimes not helpful. Pupils are moved on before they secure their knowledge. 11 to 13 February 2025 Staff encourage pupils to think about what job they want to do in the future. A clearly sequenced careers curriculum supports pupils to find out about further education and employment options. This includes the opportunity for pupils to complete work experience and meet with an independent careers advisor.

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better?

The school prepares pupils for life in modern Britain well. Pupils know about the fundamental British values. Visits and visitors to the school help pupils to learn about the community they live in. Pupils contribute to their local community by volunteering at the local residential care home, for example. Pupils learn that it is okay to have different opinions. This is useful when they take part in student council meetings. Pupils are taught how to keep themselves safe in the community. This includes how to form positive and healthy relationships. There is a comprehensive relationship and sex education and health education curriculum in place.

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better?

Pupils’ personal development and SEND provision is strengthened by the school’s therapeutic offer. Staff’s shared knowledge of how to meet pupils’ SEMH needs has contributed to a significant reduction in behaviour incidents. Learning is rarely disrupted and social times are typically harmonious.

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better?

The school works with pupils and their families to identify barriers to school attendance. With appropriate support from staff and external agencies, pupil attendance typically improves over time. Pupils develop positive attitudes to learning and school life. Parents and carers report that they welcome the opportunity to work with the school. For example, a parent, teacher and friends association organises events for pupils and their families to attend.

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better?

The proprietor body and executive leaders regularly check a wealth of whole school information such as pupil attendance and behaviour. The proprietor ensures that there is oversight of health and safety procedures and policies. This ensures that the buildings are well maintained. Classrooms are light, airy and easily accessible. Appropriate facilities are readily available to pupils, such as a well-equipped medical room and shower facilities.

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better?

On occasion, the proprietor’s checks do not identify when policies are not implemented correctly. For example, during the inspection, information was missing from the school’s website and some records were incomplete. The proprietor is increasing the school’s capacity to improve the quality of education and provision that it provides through staff training and recruitment of subject specialists. Staff feel valued and supported. They appreciate that leaders take their workload into account, are open and approachable. Nonetheless, missing information does not help staff to know how to meet pupils’ needs effectively.

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better?

The school is compliant with the independent school standards, such as the publication of its safeguarding report on the school’s website and the Equality Act 2010.

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Safeguarding

11 to 13 February 2025 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and proprietor)

 Staff do not have a secure knowledge of the curriculum’s content and expectations. As a result, in some subjects, learning activities are not well matched to the intended learning outcomes. Pupils do not secure knowledge and understanding as well as they should. The proprietor body should support staff to develop their knowledge of the school’s curriculum so that it is implemented effectively.  Gaps in pupils’ subject knowledge and what pupils already know are not always accurately identified. This means that subsequent learning does not help pupils to secure new knowledge or build on prior knowledge well enough. The proprietor body should support the school to accurately identify what pupils know and can do, what knowledge gaps need addressing and what they need to learn next.  The proprietor body’s checks on the quality and implementation of some of its policies lack rigour. This means that records are incomplete and do not help staff

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(Information for the school and proprietor)

to support the pupils effectively. The proprietor body must assure itself that the school has the necessary support and resources to implement its policies and procedures to a sufficiently high standard.

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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. 11 to 13 February 2025

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School details

Unique reference number 149340 DfE registration number 865/6062

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School details

Inspection number 10342193 Type of school Other independent special school

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School details

School category Independent special school

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School details

Proprietor Compass Community Schools Ltd

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School details

Email address education.compliance@compass- schools.org Date of previous inspection 13 to 15 June 2023 11 to 13 February 2025

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Information about this school

 The school is located at 114 Warminster Road, Westbury, Wiltshire BA13 3BR.  It is part of Compass Community Schools Ltd. The organisation has 21 schools.  The school caters for pupils with SEND. All pupils have an EHC plan. Pupils’ primary need is SEMH.  Since the previous inspection the school’s leadership team has changed. A new headteacher was appointed in April 2024. A deputy headteacher was appointed in June 2024 and an interim deputy headteacher in January 2025.  The school uses four unregistered alternative provisions.  The school meet the requirements of the provider access legislation, which requires schools to provide pupils in Years 7 to 13 with information and engagement about approved technical education qualifications and apprenticeships.  This was the second standard inspection since the school opened on 30 August 2022.

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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 evaluation about the quality of a school’s education provision.  Inspectors discussed any continued impact of the pandemic with leaders and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors held discussions with the chair of the proprietor body, governors, including the chair of governors, headteacher, other senior leaders and staff.  The lead inspector spoke with representatives from Wiltshire local authority and an alternative provision with whom the school works.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics and personal, social, health, citizenship and economic education.  For each deep dive, inspectors met with subject leaders, looked at curriculum plans, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. This evidence contributed

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Information about this inspection

towards parts 1, 2 and 8 of the independent school standards. 11 to 13 February 2025  The lead inspector also looked at curriculum plans, pupils’ books and spoke to leaders about some other subjects.  The inspectors also observed pupils during social times, looked at pupils’ work and spoke with pupils and leaders about opportunities for pupils’ personal development and pupils’ behaviour and attendance. This evidence contributed towards parts 2, 3 and 8 of the independent school standards.  Inspectors met with leaders responsible for parts 3, 6, 7 and 8 of the independent school standards. Together, they considered policies, registers and key documents such as checks and risk assessments to determine how well the school meets the standards.  Inspection activities included a tour of the site and premises to consider parts 5 and 8 of the independent school standards.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors: reviewed the single

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Information about this inspection

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.  Inspectors considered responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Ofsted Parent View, and the views of staff and pupils in Ofsted’s online surveys.  Inspectors spoke to parents at the start and end of the school day.

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The school’s proposed change to the maximum number of pupils

The school has applied to the Department for Education (DfE) to make a ‘material change’ to its registration. At the DfE’s request, we checked whether the school is likely to meet the relevant independent school standards if the DfE decides to approve the change. This part of the inspection was carried out under section 162(4) of the Education Act 2002.

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The school’s proposed change to the maximum number of pupils

 The outcome of this part of the inspection is: the school is unlikely to meet

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the relevant independent school standards if the material change

relating to the school provision is implemented.  By the end of the onsite inspection, the proprietor body ensured all of the independent school standards were met. However, this was achieved following additional prompts and reminders from the inspection team. Some required information was not readily available at the start of the inspection or records were incomplete. The proprietor was given time during the inspection to ensure these errors were rectified. This does not evidence the proprietor has ensured the school has sufficient capacity or expertise to meet the needs of additional pupils at the school.  The following standards are unlikely to be met if the material change is approved by the DfE:

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Part 8. Quality and leadership in and management of schools

11 to 13 February 2025 34(1) The standard about the equality 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

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Inspection team

Marie Thomas, lead inspector His Majesty's Inspector

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Inspection team

David Simons Ofsted Inspector 11 to 13 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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