Your Ideas School

Inspection of Your Ideas School Dilwyn Close, Redditch, Worcestershire B98 0BU

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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 Not previously inspected

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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?

Pupils feel safe, valued and happy at this school. They say lots of good things about it. This is because the school understands their needs and how to support them.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Before coming here, pupils have missed a lot of education. Your Ideas School builds their confidence and supports them to develop good habits. Staff provide consistent routines and set informed, aspirational expectations. They help pupils to be calm and settled. This helps pupils to engage with learning and they attend regularly.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff are kind, patient and work well as a team. Pupils can struggle to manage their behaviour, but staff deal with them calmly. They also find out the reasons why and support pupils to understand and manage their emotions in constructive ways. This helps pupils to improve their attitudes to school and life.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff tailor teaching to individual needs. The curriculum is suitably broad, with a daily focus on reading and mathematics. Staff notice each step of progress and are quick to praise and encourage. In all aspects of school life, there is a healthy culture of putting pupils first.

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What is it like to attend this school?

After difficult experiences elsewhere, pupils respond well to the school’s work to help them re-engage with learning.

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better?

In its first year of opening, the school has got off to a good start. Informed, highly motivated and ambitious leadership has established an effective staff team. It has also secured numerous early successes. For instance, pupils’ attendance has increased significantly since coming here. After poor, part-time or disrupted attendance elsewhere, the school has quickly achieved regular daily attendance for everyone. Pupils want to attend and parents comment positively about improvements in their children’s attitudes to school.

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better?

Pupils’ behaviour can be challenging. In response, the well-trained team manage it well and help pupils to find coping strategies. Staff support them to reflect on their feelings and how their actions affect them and others. Over time, this has led to improvements in pupils’ behaviour. It has also improved pupils’ ability to reflect on their feelings and concentrate on learning.

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better?

There is daily attention to reading and mathematics, with a focus on helping pupils to catch up with missed learning. Every day, staff spend time reading with and to pupils. Phonics is taught daily to those who need it. This is done well.

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better?

Beyond this core offer, pupils learn a suitably broad curriculum. The curriculum is supported by appropriate schemes of work. Weekly physical education and swimming lessons are notable aspects that help pupils in lots of ways. These 4 to 6 March 2025 sessions improve their physical skills, while also supporting them to take turns, follow rules and persevere with challenges.

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better?

In some subjects, lessons can be driven by pupils’ interests, rather than what they need to know or remember. This does engage pupils in lessons. However, it also means that some learning is not as well sequenced as it could be.

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better?

The school’s expertise in therapeutic and behavioural support is strong. Deliberately planned attention to pupils’ personal development is woven throughout the curriculum. Staff teach pupils how to spot risks and stay safe. Pupils learn what healthy relationships look like, and the difference between right and wrong. They learn to take responsibility, such as looking after animals. In addition, there is an after-school club where pupils can try new things. The school is now looking to extend opportunities for pupils to increase their knowledge of the wider world and the diversity of Britain.

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better?

The premises are well maintained, secure and fit for purpose. There is an outside space for play and an indoor sports hall. The school office doubles as a short-term medical room.

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better?

The directors of Your Ideas Ltd, understand their statutory duties and have effective systems for school oversight. For example, they have established a tier of governance that brings focused scrutiny of the school’s work and performance. This ensures compliance with the independent school standards. It also supports school self-evaluation and improvement planning. Both these processes are at early stages, but are becoming increasingly established as the school now has a year’s worth of evidence to reflect upon.

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better?

The school complies with schedule 10 of the Equality Act 2010. Safeguarding guidance is well understood by staff and supported by frequent training and updates. All the correct checks on adults’ suitability to work with children are completed and recorded correctly. The school’s website is still being developed but includes all the required information.

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better?

All pupils have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). All have education, health and care (EHC) plans. The school takes careful account of these plans and makes sure that staff understand pupils’ needs and targets. These then inform individual education programmes. The school provides the required information to placing local authorities and parents.

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better?

Staff and parents are full of praise for the school. Staff value leaders’ guidance and the open, supportive workplace culture. Parents express very positive opinions about communication with the school and its work to help their children.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. 4 to 6 March 2025

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What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and proprietor)

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What does the school need to do to improve?

 In a few subjects, lessons can be driven more by pupils’ interests, rather than what they need to know and remember. This does engage pupils in lessons. However, it also means that some learning is not as well sequenced as it could be. The school should ensure that educational activities support pupils to learn more consistently across all subjects in the curriculum.  The school’s processes for self-evaluation and improvement planning are at early stages. Currently, evaluations and identified priorities for further improvement are rather general and focus more on provision than impact. The school should look to sharpen up these processes so there is more evaluative reasoning about next steps for school improvement.  The school’s work to give pupils experience and knowledge of the wider world is still developing. Currently, pupils have limited experiences beyond home and school. This means they can be anxious about things that are different to what

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What does the school need to do to improve?

they know. The school’s personal development offer could do more to combat this and increase pupils’ awareness of the diversity of modern Britain.

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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 March 2025

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School details

Unique reference number 150103 DfE registration number 885/6085

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School details

Inspection number 10342215 Type of school Other Independent Special School

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School details

Email address headteacher@yourideas.school

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School details

Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected 4 to 6 March 2025

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Information about this school

 Your Ideas School is an independent special school run by Your Ideas Ltd. It caters for pupils with the following SEND: attachment difficulties, separation anxiety, school anxiety, social anxiety, autism, depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. All pupils have an EHC plan. Pupils are referred to the school by local authorities.  It operates in a detached two-storey building, with enclosed outdoor space.  This is the school’s first standard inspection since being registered by the DfE in 2024.  The school does not use any alternative provision.  The school does not have a religious ethos.

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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.  This was the first 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 of the school.  Inspectors met and talked with the headteacher, deputy headteacher, staff and pupils. The lead inspector met with two directors of Your Ideas Ltd.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: reading, science, personal, social, health and economic education and mathematics. For each deep dive, inspectors held discussions about the curriculum, looked at curriculum plans, visited classrooms, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. They also considered the curriculum in other subjects to check how they were organised, taught and assessed. An

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Information about this inspection

inspector observed some pupils reading to staff.  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. 4 to 6 March 2025  Inspectors observed staff and pupil interactions. They observed pupils’ behaviour in lessons and at other times during the day.  Inspectors took account of the responses to Ofsted’s Parent View survey.  Inspectors reviewed a range of documentation published on the school’s website. They checked the premises and looked at documents and records kept in school.

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Inspection team

Martin Pye, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Jane Edgerton Ofsted Inspector 4 to 6 March 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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