Hartwell School

Inspection of Hartwell School Yarm Road, Stockton TS18 3TN

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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 Good

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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 at this school have a range of special educational needs and/or disabilities. Pupils can join the school at any point in their educational journey. Many pupils refer to this school as better than any other they have attended. Relationships between staff and pupils are warm and caring. Pupils recognise that staff take time to get to know them. This helps pupils to feel safe.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school has clear behaviour expectations that pupils refer to. Staff remind pupils to be ‘safe and fair’ in all they do. When pupils join the school, there is an extensive assessment process. This involves the clinical, pastoral and education teams. This process ensures that the school understands any barriers to pupils’ learning. Individual positive behaviour support plans outline how staff can best support each pupil. These help to ensure consistency in behaviour management.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school’s curriculum is broad and balanced and tailored to meet the needs of the pupils. Typically, pupils who attend regularly achieve well.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy their weekly ‘Elevate’ afternoon where they can develop their talents and interests. For example, some pupils engage in fishing, horse riding, art or cultural visits. This supports pupils’ well-being and promotes a love of lifelong learning.

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better?

The school ensures that the curriculum builds pupils’ knowledge and skills from Year 1 to Year 11 and from their varying starting points. Leaders are ambitious for the pupils. For example, in physical education, pupils use the anatomical names correctly for muscles to describe the effect that exercise has on their body. The curriculum is highly personalised. Teachers check routinely what pupils know and remember, such as during lessons and at the end of a unit of work. The school uses this information to plug gaps in pupils’ knowledge effectively.

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better?

The school prioritises the teaching of early reading. When pupils join the school, staff check pupils’ phonics knowledge. They identify any extra phonics support that pupils may need. The school adapts the phonics programme for each pupil. Staff supporting pupils in key stage 1 use different strategies skilfully to engage pupils in learning their sounds. For example, they use microphones or sensory resources. The books that pupils read match the sounds that they know. Pupils in key stages 3 and 4 show positive attitudes and resilience to sound out new and unfamiliar words. However, some writing tasks are not suitably tailored to support pupils’ learning. This means some pupils at the early stages of writing do not use and apply the sounds that they know consistently in their work.

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better?

The school's attendance is below the national average. While the school has begun to analyse attendance patterns, there is more work to do to have a demonstrable 10 to 12 June 2025 impact on some pupil’s attendance. Too many pupils are persistently absent. This impacts on pupils’ achievement and their wider personal development.

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better?

Pupils have a clear understanding of equality and diversity. They articulate well the different groups equality affects such as disability, race, religion and gender. Pupils know how to stay safe online. Through their food technology lessons, the school ensures that pupils know about healthy and unhealthy diets. The clinical team support pupils’ positive mental health with suitable therapies.

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better?

The school has an impressive careers offer. It finds out about the employment interests of pupils in Year 8 and makes changes to the curriculum to offer appropriate options. Pupils complete work experience, often working in the school kitchen or supporting younger pupils in lessons.

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better?

Since the previous standard inspection, the school has had significant changes in staffing. This has caused concern for some parents and carers who are worried this may impact on their child’s education. The school recognises the need to strengthen relationships with families.

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better?

The clinical, pastoral and school teams work together effectively in the best interests of the pupils. Staff are positive that the school manages their workload and supports their well-being.

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better?

The proprietor body has a strong oversight of the school's strengths and areas for improvement. Leaders and the proprietor body demonstrate secure skills and knowledge to ensure that the independent school standards are met consistently. The school complies with 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)

 The school’s systems for supporting pupils’ attendance are not effective enough. Some pupils have persistently low attendance. This means that they miss out on essential learning and their wider personal development. The school should strengthen its work to improve the attendance of pupils with low attendance.  Sometimes, tasks for pupils at the early stages of writing do not match their needs accurately. This means that pupils do not get the practise they need to consolidate their phonics knowledge and develop their emerging writing skills. The school should work with staff to better set tasks that help pupils to become more fluent writers. 10 to 12 June 2025

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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. 10 to 12 June 2025

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School details

Unique reference number 146733 DfE registration number 808/6005

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School details

Inspection number 10374862 Type of school Other Independent Special School

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School details

Annual fees (day pupils) £69,874 to £98,586

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School details

Website www.witherslackgroup.co.uk/hartwell- school Email address hartwell@witherslackgroup.co.uk

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School details

Date of previous inspection 1 to 3 February 2022 10 to 12 June 2025

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Information about this school

 The school operates from Yarm Road, Stockton-on-Tees TS18 3TN.  The school is part of the Witherslack Group.  Since the previous standard inspection in February 2022, the school had an emergency inspection in December 2024.  The school is registered to admit 120 pupils. Almost all pupils have an education health and care plan.  There are pupils from Years 1 to Year 11 on site.  Hartwell School is a special school for pupils with a range of special educational needs and/or disabilities such as social, emotional and mental health and pupils who have a diagnosis of autism. Some pupils have moderate learning difficulties or speech, language and communication needs.  There is a considerable number of new staff across the school since September 2024. The headteacher joined the school in January 2025.  The school uses one unregistered alternative provision.

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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 second routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed any continued impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors met with the headteacher and other leaders from the school.  Inspectors met with representatives of the proprietor board.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: English, mathematics, physical education and personal, social and health education. For each deep dive, inspectors held discussions about the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. Inspectors also looked at curriculum plans and spoke to leaders about some other subjects.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, 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 10 to 12 June 2025 considered the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.  Inspectors completed a premises check.  Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour in lessons and during social times.  An inspector spoke by telephone to two local authority representatives who place pupils at the school.  An inspector spoke to the assistant manager of the alternative provision by telephone.  Inspectors considered the responses to Ofsted Parent View, including the free- text comments. They also considered the responses to Ofsted’s online survey for staff and pupils. Inspectors spoke with groups of staff and pupils to gain their views about the school. For some meetings with pupils, an adult from the school was present.

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Inspection team

Alison Stephenson, lead inspector His Majesty's Inspector

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Inspection team

Matthew Vellensworth His Majesty's Inspector 10 to 12 June 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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