Cambian Scarborough School

Inspection of Cambian Scarborough School Unit 11, Plaxton Park, Cayton Low Road, Scarborough, North Yorkshire YO11 3BQ

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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 special educational needs and/or disabilities. Many pupils have previously disengaged with education. The school nurtures pupils back into full-time education. The school prioritises caring for pupils’ mental health and well-being. Pupils appreciate the access to pastoral support. They use it to talk openly about their emotions. This enables pupils to feel positive about education.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school has a personalised approach to support pupils’ behaviour. Pupils and staff agree to set individual targets every week. Pupils earn rewards for achieving their targets. This helps pupils to work positively towards improving and managing their behaviour.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school’s curriculum is broad and tailored to meet the needs of the pupils. Typically, pupils leave the school with some qualifications.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy engaging in support for community projects. For example, they made outdoor furniture for a local hospice. They involve themselves in charitable work for a centre that supports vulnerable people. This helps pupils to become active, informed and responsible members of the community.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school provides pupils with lots of educational visits. For example, pupils visit a multi-faith centre in a large city. This exposes pupils to a contrasting locality and promotes respect for other religions.

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better?

The school’s curriculum builds pupils’ knowledge and skills towards external qualifications at the end of key stage 4. The school has a specialist teacher for each subject area. They are responsible for ensuring they teach the right thing, at the right time to the right year group. Staff support pupils effectively to work in small groups. Staff check that pupils understand what they learn and ensure that pupils revisit and recap important concepts.

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better?

Pupils have positive attitudes to their learning. If pupils disrupt learning, staff manage it sensitively and swiftly to enable the rest of the group to maintain focus.

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better?

Pupils can start at the school in any year group or at any time across the academic year. Pupils undertake several assessments in the first few weeks. Staff collate this information to determine the support that pupils need. This enables the school to identify the pupil’s strengths and difficulties and adapt their approach as necessary.

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better?

The school has created a system to check what pupils know and remember at the end of a unit of work. This is in its infancy and needs further refinement. In some subjects, the tasks at the end of the unit do not consistently connect to the knowledge and skills that have been previously taught. This means that, at times, staff do not accurately identify the gaps in pupils’ knowledge. 1 to 3 July 2025 The school has a phonics programme to support those pupils at the early stages of reading. However, after the school completes initial checks on phonics attainment, gaps in phonics knowledge are not addressed quickly and effectively for some pupils. This means that some pupils do not have the phonics knowledge necessary to read age-appropriate texts.

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better?

The school offers effective independent careers advice to pupils. Pupils volunteer at a local care home or experience construction workshops. Staff support pupils to travel independently. These act as an introduction to the world of work and preparation for adulthood.

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better?

Pupils have opportunities to debate. The school selects topics that are current news items or themes that pupils suggest. Pupils enjoy sharing their views. This ensures that pupils enhance their critical thinking, increase their confidence and show tolerance of other opinions.

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better?

Staff are positive that the school manages their workload and supports their well-being. Relationships between staff and pupils are strong. Pupils trust that the adults will help and support them.

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better?

Representatives from the proprietor body complete robust audits across all aspects of the school’s provision. The proprietor body, therefore, 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 checks on the knowledge pupils have retained are not matched well to the curriculum coverage. This means that gaps in pupils’ knowledge are not identified and subsequently addressed. The school should ensure that the assessment tasks teachers provide match pupil’s prior learning.

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(Information for the school and proprietor)

 The school’s support for some pupils who are at the early stages of reading is not precise enough. As a result, some pupils do not develop their phonics knowledge and understanding as quickly as possible. The school must ensure that phonics is delivered effectively so that pupils learn to read with fluency and accuracy. 1 to 3 July 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. 1 to 3 July 2025

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School details

Unique reference number 134660 DfE registration number 815/6036

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School details

Inspection number 10391737 Type of school Other Independent Special School

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School details

Annual fees (day pupils) £59,950 to £82,061

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School details

Website www.cambiangroup.com/specialist- education/our-schools/semh- schools/cambian-scarborough-school/ Email address michelle.goodwin@cambiangroup.com

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School details

Date of previous inspection 26 to 28 April 2022 1 to 3 July 2025

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Information about this school

 The school operates from Unit 11, Plaxton Park, Cayton Low Road, Scarborough, North Yorkshire YO11 3BQ  The school is part of Cambian Childcare Limited.  The school is registered to admit 20 pupils. All pupils have an education, health and care plan.  There are pupils from Year 4 to Year 11 onsite.  Cambian Scarborough School is a special school for pupils with social, emotional and mental health needs.  The headteacher was appointed in September 2023.  The school does not use any 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.  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 the proprietor body.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: English, mathematics, art and design 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.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, 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

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Information about this inspection

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 a local authority representative. 1 to 3 July 2025  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. 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

Bernard Clark Ofsted Inspector 1 to 3 July 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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