Estuary High School

Inspection of Estuary High School 820 London Road, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex SS9 3NH

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

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

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

Does the school meet the independent school standards?

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school’s safeguarding systems and procedures are not doing what they need to do to keep pupils at this school safe from harm. The school tends to overlook causes for concern. As a result, pupils’ actions or situations escalate rather than get ‘nipped in the bud’.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils who attend this school have not engaged well in education in the past. Staff persevere to alter pupils’ perceptions of school. They listen closely to pupils and work hard to understand their points of view. Staff work with the school’s therapy team and pupils’ key workers to inform their approach. Relationships between staff and pupils are caring and warm. However, sometimes staff misjudge interactions, and this undermines their efforts. When this occurs, pupils’ behaviour heightens, and they disengage from learning. For example, they use disrespectful language and sometimes walk out of their lessons.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy and benefit from the new opportunities for enrichment to the curriculum. For instance, they undertake instrumental music tuition and visit local amenities to develop their cultural awareness and social skills. The school has not ensured expectations for pupils’ achievement are high enough. Pupils are not as well prepared for their next steps in education, employment and training as they could be.

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better?

The proprietor has not ensured ongoing and effective compliance with the independent school standards (the standards). They have not ensured that key aspects of the school’s work that keep pupils safe, including health and safety requirements, are met. The proprietor has not made sure that safeguarding arrangements are effective. Some standards relating to aspects of the curriculum, pupils’ behaviour and accommodation are unmet. However, the school has made sure that it complies with schedule 10 of the Equality Act 2010.

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better?

The school’s curriculum is in development. There has been some useful adjustment to the curriculum design. Subject expectations are now aligned with the national curriculum. However, the curriculum in some subjects is not well considered or organised in a way that enables pupils to build on their prior learning. The school uses online tutoring in some subjects to bring added capacity to curriculum delivery. Staff take into account pupils’ starting points, and they identify pupils’ gaps in knowledge when they join the school. However, they do not sufficiently keep abreast of what pupils know and can do. Sometimes, pupils miss lessons due to scheduled appointments or because they choose to leave halfway through. When this occurs, teachers do not make sure that pupils catch up with missed work. This means that gaps in pupils’ knowledge widen rather than reduce.

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better?

Staff’s subject knowledge and their understanding of how best to deliver the curriculum vary. For instance, they are unclear as to how best to adapt the 23 to 25 April 2025 curriculum and their delivery for the nature of the pupils’ special educational needs and/or disabilities. This includes how to cater for and support pupils’ needs with cognition and learning. While the Thrive curriculum helps pupils to understand their social, emotional and mental health needs, pupils too often disengage when they find the work in lessons difficult or when they receive little guidance on what to do.

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better?

The school’s support for reading is effective. When pupils first join the school, staff take time to understand how well pupils read. They adjust the reading curriculum accordingly and provide extra support sessions should pupils require them. Pupils appreciate the designated time set aside for guided and independent reading. They are developing healthy reading habits.

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better?

Calm and authoritative leadership, supported by positive relationships between staff and pupils, has led to recent improvements in behaviour. Staff confirm that pupils’ conduct has improved, with fewer escalations required. Pupils report that they feel safe at school. However, inconsistencies in the application of the school’s approach result in variable expectations. For instance, while some pupils are instructed to sit up straight, others are permitted to withdraw from learning and put their heads onto their desks. Disruptions to learning persist, including pupils leaving lessons and disengaging due to weaknesses in curriculum design. Some risk assessments and behaviour plans are not followed rigorously or acted on effectively to secure consistently good standards of behaviour.

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better?

There are strengths with the school’s careers programme. Pupils receive individual careers advice, and some have experience of work-related learning. They attend local careers fairs. The school has an appropriate curriculum for personal, social and health education (PSHE) and for relationships and sex education. Pupils undertake a personalised programme that is supported by therapists and a multi-agency approach. There is an emphasis on preparing pupils for adulthood, such as learning to cook, as well as helping them to pursue their interests. All pupils have instrumental music tuition, which is well received. However, the school’s work to support pupils’ development of positive values and character is at an early stage. Pupils do not get all of the experiences they need to make better decisions about respect, safety and risk.

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better?

The school and the proprietor lack sufficient oversight of key aspects of the school’s work. For example, they do not track incidents of bullying, racial incidents and restrictive physical intervention over time and pupils’ experiences of these. This means leaders cannot see patterns and take the action necessary. The school does not keep a sufficient overview of accidents and staff injuries. The school does not check its own work well enough. They did not know that the medical room does not meet requirements, as it is placed in a classroom that is a teaching space.

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better?

The proprietor has not ensured that all necessary information is provided to the local authorities regarding provision for pupils who are looked after. Some of the proprietor’s systems and procedures do not support leadership sufficiently. There is limited capacity to improve the school. 23 to 25 April 2025

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are not effective.

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Safeguarding

There is a lack of vigilance in the school, and this contributes to a weak safeguarding culture. The proprietor has not ensured that staff understand their professional responsibilities and role to ensure that pupils are safe and that pupils know how to keep themselves safe when in school and the wider community. While the school provides training on what is acceptable behaviour and what is not, staff do not follow the advice and guidance they receive. This blurs boundaries. Pupils do not recognise when their actions are inappropriate towards staff and each other. This places them at risk of harm. Equally, staff confuse pupils by their actions, such as the acceptance of inappropriate touch and discussing an individual pupil’s difficulties in front of their peers.

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Safeguarding

The safeguarding policy and procedures are incorrectly applied. The school does not routinely refer to the appropriate agency, such as the police, when pupils exhibit harmful or dangerous behaviour. Pupils’ risk management plans are not consistently updated after pupils display harmful sexual behaviour towards others. Staff do not report concerns via the school’s electronic system as they should according to the school’s policy.

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Safeguarding

The proprietor’s procedures do not sufficiently protect staff from harm and false allegations from pupils. There is confusion over how accidents and injuries for staff are to be recorded. There is no oversight of this over time. This limits leaders’ ability to provide a duty of care to both staff and pupils as well as liaise with the local authority designated officer if need be. The generic transportation risk assessment does not provide specific guidance in relation to individual pupils. This means that staff make decisions such as travelling alone with a pupil without the sufficient safeguards in place. The closed-circuit television (CCTV) was switched off after a serious incident on site.

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Safeguarding

Relevant staff and leaders who work for the proprietor are up to date with safer recruitment training. They have completed the checks that they should when employing staff. However, at the start of the on-site inspection, the school’s single central record did not contain the information it should for section 128 checks and long-term supply staff. This was updated during the inspection.

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(Information for the school and proprietor)

 The proprietor has not ensured that the school has a strong safeguarding culture in place. Weak monitoring procedures mean that the proprietor has not identified and addressed the range of shortcomings that exist. This places pupils’ welfare and safety at risk. The proprietor and the school should ensure that systems and procedures and staff’s knowledge and understanding of safeguarding are such 23 to 25 April 2025 that actions to keep pupils safe are effective, including when engaging with external agencies.  The recommendation from the previous inspection has not been sufficiently addressed. The curriculum for several subjects lacks detail as to what pupils should learn and when. This limits pupils’ knowledge and understanding of the curriculum, as staff lack guidance on what to teach. The school should ensure that the curriculum is ambitious and well sequenced to raise expectations and achievement for all pupils.

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(Information for the school and proprietor)

 Staff do not take sufficient account of what pupils know and can do before they introduce new content and move them on to new work. They do not ensure that pupils catch up on missed work. As a result, some pupils struggle to understand new learning as they do not have the prior knowledge in place. The school should ensure that its assessment processes are such that staff are able to identify and act on gaps in pupils’ knowledge so pupils have the capacity and confidence to learn new material.  The school does not provide staff with a clear picture and understanding of pupils’ cognition and learning needs. This limits staff’s ability to adapt the curriculum and support pupils so that they learn well. The school should ensure that staff consistently support the range of needs in their classes so that pupils are well prepared for their next steps in education, employment or training.  The school’s inconsistent approach to managing and supporting pupils’ behaviour

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(Information for the school and proprietor)

has hindered recent progress in improving conduct. Variability in expectations and inconsistent adherence to risk assessments and behaviour plans have led to some pupils disrupting learning and failing to engage fully with the curriculum. The school should ensure that all staff apply behaviour management strategies uniformly, reinforcing clear expectations to create a more structured and supportive learning environment for pupils.  The proprietor has not ensured that the school consistently meets all the standards, including those related to curriculum, teaching, behaviour, pupils’ health and safety, provision of information and the school site. As a result, the provision does not provide adequately for pupils’ learning and their safety. The proprietor must ensure that leaders at all levels have the necessary understanding of the full range of standards and that the school consistently meets these standards.

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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. 23 to 25 April 2025

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School details

Unique reference number 134940 DfE registration number 882/6053

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School details

Inspection number 10374844 Type of school Other Independent Special School

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School details

Proprietor Kites Children’s Services Ltd

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School details

Chairs Roz Parsons Andre Palmer Headteacher Doreen Ellis

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School details

Annual fees (day pupils) £36,800 to £41,600

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 13 to 15 September 2022 23 to 25 April 2025

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Information about this school

 Estuary High School is an independent special school for pupils with social, emotional and mental health needs. All pupils have an education, health and care plan.  All pupils are looked-after children and have been placed in the school by a number of local authorities.  The school operates from 820 London Road, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex SS9 3NH.  The school’s current headteacher joined the school in September 2024. The school’s previous headteacher is a member of staff at the school.  The school makes use of one unregistered alternative provision and online tutoring.  Although the school is registered to have post-16 students, at the time of the inspection, there were few on roll in this phase. As a result, the inspectors did not give a grade and report specifically on the provision to avoid identifying individual students.  The school has previously had two progress monitoring inspections. In March

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Information about this school

2014, the school had successfully implemented its action plan. However, the attendance register was not fully completed or up to date. At this time, the school met the failed standard regarding the medical room, as they had converted an area of the school to provide an appropriate space. In the following monitoring inspection in May 2014, the school had addressed the issues with the attendance register.

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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 has failed to meet the independent school standards. These are the requirements of 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 met with the representatives of the proprietor, including the co-chairs and the children’s services manager. Inspectors also met with the headteacher and staff.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: English, mathematics, geography and PSHE. For each deep dive, inspectors held discussions about the 23 to 25 April 2025 curriculum, 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.  Inspectors also looked at curriculum plans and spoke to leaders about some other subjects, such as the Thrive curriculum.  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 toured the school premises, checked the school’s website, scrutinised the admissions and attendance registers and a range of other documentation to check that the school complies with the independent school standards.  Inspectors considered the views of staff through conversations and scrutiny of the responses to the Ofsted online staff survey. Inspectors spoke to pupils in class and around the school.

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The school’s proposed change to its age range of pupils

 The school has requested to the DfE to alter its registration so that it can admit pupils from the age of 11. There are no plans to admit more pupils beyond the capacity outlined in the school’s 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.  The outcome of this part of the inspection: The school is unlikely to meet the

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relevant independent school standards if the material change relating

to the school is implemented .  Leaders have not ensured that the standards relating to the quality of education in regard to the curriculum and teaching are wholly met. Therefore, it is inappropriate for the age range of pupils to be extended.  The school has not ensured the welfare, health and safety of pupils because the arrangements for safeguarding are not effective.

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Information about the material change inspection

 The proprietor has requested a material change to extend the age range of pupils from 11 to 18.  Inspectors considered the school’s likely compliance with standards related to: curriculum; pupil’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural education; safeguarding; and leadership and management, if the material change is approved.

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Inspection team

Liz Smith, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Daniel Short His Majesty’s Inspector 23 to 25 April 2025

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Part 1. Quality of education provided

 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.  3 The standard in this paragraph is met if the proprietor ensures that the teaching at the school- – 3(a) enables pupils to acquire new knowledge and make good progress according to their ability so that they increase their understanding and develop their skills in the subjects taught; – 3(c) involves well planned lessons and effective teaching methods, activities and management of class time; – 3(d) shows a good understanding of the aptitudes, needs and prior attainments

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Part 1. Quality of education provided

of the pupils, and ensures that these are taken into account in the planning of lessons; – 3(e) demonstrates good knowledge and understanding of the subject matter being taught; – 3(g) demonstrates that a framework is in place to assess pupils’ work regularly and thoroughly and use information from that assessment to plan teaching so that pupils can progress.

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Part 3. Welfare, health and safety of pupils

 7 The standard in this paragraph is met if the proprietor ensures that- – 7(a) arrangements are made to safeguard and promote the welfare of pupils at the school; and – 7(b) such arrangements have regard to any guidance issued by the Secretary of State.  9 The standard in this paragraph is met if the proprietor promotes good behaviour amongst pupils by ensuring that- – 9(b) the policy is implemented effectively; and  11 The standard in this paragraph is met if the proprietor ensures that relevant health and safety laws are complied with by the drawing up and effective implementation of a written health and safety policy. 23 to 25 April 2025  16 The standard in this paragraph is met if the proprietor ensures that- – 16(a) the welfare of pupils at the school is safeguarded and promoted by the drawing up and effective implementation of a written risk assessment policy; and – 16(b) appropriate action is taken to reduce risks that are identified.

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Part 5. Premises of and accommodation at schools

 24(1) The standard in this paragraph is met if the proprietor ensures that suitable accommodation is provided in order to cater for the medical and therapy needs of pupils, including- – 24(1)(a) accommodation for the medical examination and treatment of pupils;  24(2) The accommodation provided under sub-paragraphs (1)(a) and (b) may be used for other purposes (apart from teaching) provided it is always readily available to be used for the purposes set out in sub-paragraphs (1)(a) and (b).

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Part 6. Provision of information

 32(1) The standard about the provision of information by the school is met if the proprietor ensures that- – 32(1)(h) where a pupil wholly or partly funded by a local authority (except where funding is solely for free of charge early years provision in accordance with the duty contained in section 7 of the Childcare Act 2006[16]) is registered at the school, an annual account of income received and expenditure incurred by the school in respect of that pupil is provided to the local authority and, on request, to the Secretary of State.

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Part 8. Quality of leadership in and management of schools

 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 – 34(1)(c) actively promote the well-being of pupils. 23 to 25 April 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

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Part 8. Quality of leadership in and management of schools

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Part 8. Quality of leadership in and management of schools

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Part 8. Quality of leadership in and management of schools

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Part 8. Quality of leadership in and management of schools

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Part 8. Quality of leadership in and management of schools

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