Progress Schools - Hamilton Square

Inspection of Progress Schools – Hamilton Square 60 Hamilton Square, Wirral CH41 5AT

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

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

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

Does the school meet the independent school standards?

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What is it like to attend this school?

Most pupils join this school with adverse experiences of education. Typically, they do not value learning when they arrive. In addition, most pupils have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils appreciate that this school offers something different. A strong emphasis on building positive relationships, together with small class sizes, gives pupils the space and support to learn to cope with being in school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff welcome pupils into school each morning. This helps to set the tone for respectful interactions between pupils and adults. In the main, pupils follow the school’s well-established routines. Each school site is typically calm and harmonious.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school has high expectations of pupils’ achievement. However, pupils do not learn as well as they should. In some subjects, the curriculum is underdeveloped and staff lack appropriate subject-specific expertise to deliver it well. Very recently, leaders have taken action to improve the school’s quality of education. Much of this work is very new.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils benefit from opportunities to develop confidence and resilience. For example, they participate in activities such as go-karting or trampolining. These activities are supplemented by virtual reality experiences to encourage pupils to explore the world beyond their local area. For instance, pupils enjoyed a virtual visit to a natural history museum.

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better?

Some aspects of this school have improved greatly since the last inspection. For example, carefully tailored support now helps pupils to behave better and to attend school more frequently. However, despite some changes to the curriculum offer, most improvements to the school’s quality of education have only just begun. It is too early to see the impact on pupils’ learning. These improvements are the main priority of the school’s new leadership.

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better?

In the main, the curriculum is ambitious. The school has expanded the range of subjects in which pupils can complete nationally accredited qualifications. However, it is still finalising which qualifications are most appropriate for pupils so that they achieve well and access appropriate next steps in employment or education.

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better?

The school has prioritised developing the curriculum in English, mathematics and science. Overall, this has been successful. These curriculums are logically ordered and staff typically deliver them as intended. However, until recently, there has been less emphasis on other subject curriculums. As such, there is less clarity about the important information that pupils should know and remember. In addition, pupils do not have sufficient opportunities to practise and embed their learning in these subjects. As a result, they do not build knowledge securely over time and their learning across the curriculum is uneven. 15 to 17 July 2025 Staff deliver a broad range of subjects. The school has a training programme aimed at developing staff’s subject knowledge and their understanding of the curriculum. However, staff do not have sufficient depth of knowledge of each of the subjects that they teach. As a result, there is much variability in how well they explain

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better?

difficult concepts, identify and address misconceptions and deepen pupils’ learning in each subject.

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better?

The school has a rigorous approach to identifying pupils’ needs and starting points when they first arrive. This includes identifying any additional SEND that pupils may have, as well as any gaps in their reading knowledge. In the main, these pupils receive appropriate support. This includes help to read more accurately and confidently. However, staff do not typically use information about gaps in pupils’ knowledge to inform their teaching. As a result, some learning activities are not well matched to pupils’ starting points. This hampers how successfully pupils learn.

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better?

The school now has a thorough approach to identifying and removing any barriers to pupils behaving and attending well. This pays dividends over time. Most pupils learn to recognise and manage their own emotions. This helps them to develop strategies that enable them to engage increasingly successfully with their education.

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better?

The school places great emphasis on pupils’ personal development. A comprehensive programme of personal, social, health and economic education helps to ensure that pupils learn important information to help them understand and navigate life in modern society. For example, pupils develop an understanding of democracy, recognise the features of a healthy relationship and learn how to keep themselves safe. In addition, pupils are immersed in an environment built on respect for others. This is modelled by staff and appreciated by pupils.

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better?

The school organises encounters between pupils and people from a range of different professions. These help pupils to understand the next steps that are available to them after school. This learning is supplemented by work experience opportunities that help pupils to develop a realistic understanding of the demands of different roles. This work is successful in helping to ensure that pupils progress to appropriate education or employment when they leave school.

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better?

Since the last inspection, the proprietor has taken suitable action to ensure that the independent school standards (the standards) are consistently met. This includes compliance with schedule 10 of the Equality Act 2010. Although work to improve the quality of education has been slow, recently appointed leaders understand what needs to be done and have begun to implement change. Staff spoke particularly favourably of recent changes at the school. They appreciate the clarity that they now have about their roles and the strengthening of the school’s systems, for example to manage behaviour. These changes have helped to improve staff’s well- being and reduce their workload. 15 to 17 July 2025

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and proprietor)

 The curriculum is underdeveloped in some subjects. This hinders how well staff deliver these curriculums and, consequently, how well pupils learn. The school should ensure that there is clarity about what pupils should know and remember in each subject and support staff to deliver subject curriculums consistently well.  Staff lack the subject-specific knowledge to teach some of subjects that they are required to. This means that pupils’ learning and achievement are uneven across the curriculum. The school should ensure that staff have the guidance and support they need to deepen their subject-specific expertise.  Sometimes, staff do not use assessment information effectively to provide support or design learning activities that take sufficient account of pupils’ starting points. As a result, some gaps in pupils’ knowledge go unaddressed. The school should ensure that staff receive the necessary support to make effective use of

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(Information for the school and proprietor)

assessment information to help pupils build knowledge securely.

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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. 15 to 17 July 2025

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School details

Unique reference number 147468 DfE registration number 344/6003

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School details

Inspection number 10391793 Type of school Other independent school

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School details

Chair Charlotte Charnley (known as Charlotte Barton) Headteacher Megan Fowler (Executive Headteacher) Jodene Horrocks (Head of School) Annual fees (day pupils) £18,000

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School details

Email address hamiltonsquarePS@progress- schools.co.uk Dates of previous inspection 5 to 7 December 2023 15 to 17 July 2025

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Information about this school

 The school operates on two sites. The school’s main site is located at 60 Hamilton Square, Birkenhead, Wirral CH41 5AT. It also makes use of some facilities in an adjoining building, which it calls ‘The Albion’. The second site is located at Bebington Youth Centre, Cornwell Close, New Ferry, Birkenhead CH62 1BG.  All places at this school are commissioned by the local authority. Most pupils have been excluded from mainstream schools. Most have social, emotional and mental health needs. The local authority also commissions places for pupils with education, health and care plans. These pupils are educated in The Albion.  The school is registered to admit up to 60 pupils between the ages of 11 and 16. However, at present, the school only caters for pupils between the ages of 14 and 16, as part of the proprietor’s current arrangements with the local authority.  The school uses one unregistered alternative provision.

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Information about this school

 The school is part of the Progress Schools group of schools. The chair of the proprietor body is the managing director of Progress Schools Limited.  In recent months, a new head of school has been appointed to the main school site. An executive headteacher has also been appointed, who has responsibility for this school and one other. At the time of the inspection, the school was in the process of recruiting a new head of school for its second site.  The school’s previous standard inspection took place from 5 to 7 December 2023. Since then, two progress monitoring inspections have been completed. These were commissioned by the Department for Education. They took place in July 2024 and January 2025.

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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 judgement 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 spoke with the chair of the proprietor body, other leaders and staff.  The lead inspector spoke with representatives of the local authority.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: English, mathematics and science. For each deep dive, they discussed the curriculum with subject leaders, 15 to 17 July 2025 visited a sample of lessons, spoke with teachers, spoke with some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  Inspectors also visited lessons and looked at curriculum documentation and samples of pupils’ work in some other subjects.  Inspectors reviewed a range of documentation, including those relating to the standards and the curriculum.

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Information about this inspection

 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.  Inspectors considered the responses to Ofsted’s surveys for staff and pupils. There were no free-text comments shared through Ofsted Parent View.  Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour at breaktime, in lessons and around the school sites.  The lead inspector conducted a tour of each of the school sites to check the suitability of the premises and accommodation against the relevant standards.

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Inspection team

Sally Rix, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Sue Eastwood His Majesty’s Inspector 15 to 17 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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