Maidstone and Malling Alternative Provision

Inspection of a school judged good for overall effectiveness before September 2024: Maidstone and Malling Alternative Provision 8 Bower Mount Road, Maidstone, Kent ME16 8AU

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Outcome

Maidstone and Malling Alternative Provision has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

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What is it like to attend this school?

There is a strong sense of belonging at this school. Pupils join having had difficulties managing their behaviour and emotions in previous settings. Nevertheless, they settle quickly. Staff swiftly establish nurturing relationships with pupils. They take the time to understand their individual circumstances. Without judgement, pupils are supported to regain self-confidence and re-engage with education. As a result, pupils are happy here. They feel valued and attend regularly.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school is aspirational for pupils. The curriculum is engaging and ambitious. It has been carefully designed to allow pupils to access qualifications and accreditations and to succeed at learning again. Pupils know that staff expect them to do their best and to uphold the school’s high expectations for behaviour and learning. Regardless of their starting points, pupils achieve well and develop renewed positive attitudes towards learning. Consequently, pupils leave well-prepared for their next steps, with most pupils successfully reintegrating into a mainstream school or going on to employment, training, or further education.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils behave well. Staff treat pupils as individuals and build relationships based on mutual respect. Staff deal with any disruption promptly. Bullying is dealt with effectively and a dedicated support team is on hand to support pupils when they need it, which helps pupils feel safe. 4 and 5 March 2025

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Pupils join the school throughout the year after exclusion or referral from mainstream schools. They often have a history of poor behaviour and low attendance. Staff take time to carefully understand each pupil. Effective systems are in place to swiftly identify pupils' starting points and any special education needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff then use this information to build a curriculum and support program tailored to their individual needs.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

The school’s curriculum includes a range of GCSEs which mirror those offered in mainstream schools, alongside vocational qualifications and accreditations that closely match pupils' aspirations and reflect local employment, education, and training opportunities. Small classes and high staffing ratios mean that pupils benefit from high levels of support. Staff confidently explain new learning clearly. Learning activities are engaging and often adapted to reflect the pupils' interests. Staff skilfully check pupils’ understanding and adapt their teaching if necessary. This ensures pupils can achieve well from their starting points.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

The school also offers short-term placements for a small number of younger pupils. For these pupils, the school offers a curriculum focused on personal development alongside core subjects. It is designed to re-engage them with education, and the majority of these pupils go on to successfully reintegrate into mainstream schools. However, the school has not yet clearly identified the components of knowledge pupils need to learn in core subjects during these placements, or coherently sequenced that learning. Some endpoints are unclear, and teachers are unsure what to teach and when. The school is alert to this and is in the process of developing the short-term curriculum to ensure these pupils secure the fundamental knowledge they will need to be successful learners when they return to studying a mainstream curriculum.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

The school prioritises reading. Every day, pupils read out loud to teachers from carefully selected articles and blogs tailored to their life experiences. This helps them read with increasing confidence, accuracy, and fluency. The school also provides targeted support for pupils at an earlier stage of learning to read through discreet, age-appropriate interventions. Despite the clear positive impact of this work, the school is in the process of adopting an even more rigorous approach to teaching early reading to improve this even further.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Pupils’ behaviour is a strength of the school. This is driven by high levels of respect between pupils and staff. Staff receive training that helps them understand pupils’ barriers to learning. As a result, potential incidents are often avoided because staff are highly attuned to pupils’ feelings and anxieties. Furthermore, the school works closely with parents, carers, and outside agencies to effectively support pupils’ to attend as regularly as possible.

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What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Learning is not limited to academic subjects. To support their wider development, pupils enjoy taking part in a varied range of trips and activities, which are woven into the curriculum. In addition, regular lessons on important topics such as consent, racism, 4 and 5 March 2025

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substance misuse, and online safety are tailored to meet pupils' needs and ensure they leave school prepared for life in modern Britain.

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Leaders and those responsible for governance are effectively maintaining the standards identified in the previous inspection. The curriculum has improved, with more pupils now leaving this school with more qualifications and accreditations. Those responsible for governance understand the school well and provide support and challenge, which is mostly effective. Staff feel valued and well-supported through the training and care they receive from the school.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The school has not coherently defined the precise sequence of learning in the core subjects to teach younger pupils on short-term placements. This means teachers are unclear about what to teach and when, and the endpoints remain vague. The school should collaborate with their referring home schools to identify the fundamental knowledge pupils need to acquire during their placement and ensure this is coherently planned and sequenced in the short-term curriculum. This will ensure these pupils leave with the knowledge required to be successful learners when reintegrating into a mainstream setting.  For pupils at an earlier stage of learning to read, the school employs a variety of different schemes and has only recently invested in a systematic synthetic phonics programme. This means that, although effective intervention is taking place, the teaching of early reading is not as precise as it could be so pupils do not secure phonic

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

knowledge and reading fluency as quickly and systematically as possible. The school must now strengthen its teaching of early reading by embedding the use of the phonics programme and work to implement it with fidelity. This will ensure those at the earlier stages of learning to read and address the gaps in their phonic knowledge as soon as possible so they can access the rest of the curriculum.

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Background

Until September 2024, on a graded (section 5) inspection we gave schools an overall effectiveness grade, in addition to the key and provision judgements. Overall effectiveness grades given before September 2024 will continue to be visible on school inspection reports and on Ofsted's website. From September 2024 graded inspections will not include an overall effectiveness grade. This school was, before September 2024, judged to be good for its overall effectiveness. 4 and 5 March 2025

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We have now inspected the school to determine whether it has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at that previous inspection. This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school's work has improved significantly or that it may not be as strong as it was at the last inspection, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection. A graded inspection is carried out under section 5 of the Act. Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

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This is the first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good for overall effectiveness in November 2019.

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How can I feed back my views?

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.

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Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

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Further information

In the report, 'disadvantaged pupils' is used to mean pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND); pupils who meet the definition of children in need of help and protection ; pupils receiving statutory local authority support from a social worker; and pupils who otherwise meet the criteria used for deciding the school's pupil premium funding (this includes pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years, looked after children (children in local authority care) and/or children who left care through adoption or another formal route). 4 and 5 March 2025

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 5 and 6 November 2019, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school provides an education for pupils who have been referred to the school by the local authority or by mainstream schools.  Pupils join the school throughout the academic year. Many have had low attendance at their previous schools and arrive having experienced gaps in their education.  At the time of the inspection, 50 pupils were attending the school and were all dual- rolled with their mainstream school.  The school uses one unregistered alternative provision.  The school meets the requirements of the provider access legislation, which requires schools to provide pupils in Years 8 to 13 with information and engagement about approved technical education qualifications and apprenticeships.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspections are a point-in-time evaluation of the quality of a school’s education provision. 4 and 5 March 2025

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 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 with the headteacher, senior leaders, the special educational needs coordinator, subject leaders, teachers and support staff.  The lead inspector met with representatives from the management committee and spoke to a representative from the local authority.  Inspectors visited a sample of lessons, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  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.

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 The inspectors considered the responses to Ofsted’s online surveys for staff and pupils. They considered the responses to the online parents survey, Ofsted Parent View.  Inspectors spoke to pupils throughout the inspection.

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Inspection team

James Stuart, lead inspector His Majesty's Inspector

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Inspection team

Liz McIntosh Ofsted Inspector 4 and 5 March 2025

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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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