Cambian Hartlepool School

Inspection of Cambian Hartlepool School Unit E, Sovereign Way, Sovereign Park, Hartlepool TS25 1NN

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Inspection dates: 23 to 25 September 2025

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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?

This is a calm, orderly school, where pupils feel happy and cared for. Pupils trust the adults around them. Staff listen and support pupils to make the right choices. Some pupils and their parents and carers told inspectors that the school has positively transformed their lives.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils at this school have a range of social, emotional and mental health needs. They benefit from warm relationships with staff. Pupils love ‘Big Ted’, the school’s therapeutic dog. The school uses Ted effectively to support pupil’s mental health with cuddles and walks.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils appreciate having small class sizes. They said that this enables them to be effective learners. The school has high expectations about how pupils should behave. Pupils have personalised passports that outline how adults can best support their behaviour. Staff support pupils to regulate their behaviour successfully. As a result, pupils are keen to demonstrate positive learning behaviours.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils have access to vocational experiences, such as construction. This helps pupils to make links between their learning and potential careers. Typically, pupils who attend regularly achieve well.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy a range of educational visits. For example, they visit London to enable them to learn about democracy.

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better?

The school has an ambitious curriculum for its pupils. Staff work collectively towards ensuring the best possible outcomes for each pupil. The curriculum is frequently adapted to ensure that it meets the needs of each pupil. Approaches such as bespoke adult interaction or the use of practical equipment enable pupils to access their learning. This helps pupils’ learning experiences to be closely matched to their individual needs.

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better?

Some aspects of the school’s curriculum are highly detailed and developed. These subjects provide pupils with a coherent sequence of lessons that successfully build knowledge and skills. However, some subjects need refinement and embedding to ensure that pupils know and remember more over time. This means some pupils experience inconsistency in the quality of their learning.

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better?

The school’s assessment system is becoming embedded. Leaders collect information on pupil progress and use it to identify gaps in learning. This enables them to provide targeted support, helping to close gaps and improve outcomes for pupils.

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better?

The school has recently introduced a new phonics programme for those pupils at the early stages of reading. Pupils receive individual phonics teaching to help them catch up. Pupils read well. The school matches reading books to pupil’s phonics 23 to 25 September 2025 attainment. Books have appropriate content to interest the older pupils. This means that pupils are increasingly able to read with an improving independence and fluency.

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better?

The school ensures that pupils positively contribute to society. They engage in voluntary work, such as litter picking in the community or painting walls. They support charity work at Hartlepool football ground. This helps to build pupils’ resilience and self-esteem. Pupils discuss and debate in small groups. They respect and acknowledge each other’s views. Pupils know how to stay safe on and offline. Pupils have a secure understanding of how to stay physically and mentally healthy. The school uses food technology lessons to support pupils’ understanding of different cultures. Pupils enjoy cooking foods from around the world. This connects pupils’ understanding of history, traditions and values.

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better?

The school has begun to challenge the low attendance of some pupils. Leaders understand the barriers that make attendance difficult for some pupils. It has put appropriate actions in place to support pupils back into school. However, this is in the early stages of implementation. This means some pupils continue to miss vital learning and wider aspects of school life.

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better?

Staff enjoy working at the school and feel well supported by leaders and the proprietor. The school manages workload effectively, contributing to a positive and collaborative working environment. The school and the proprietor demonstrate secure skills and knowledge to ensure that the independent school standards (‘the 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)

 In a small number of subjects, some improvements to curriculums, including early reading, are more recent. Some pupils’ knowledge and skills are not as secure as they could be in these subjects. This is because pupils have had less opportunity to secure some important aspects of their learning. The school should ensure that improvements to these curriculums are embedded and implemented fully to support pupils to develop a strong body of knowledge in these subjects.  The school’s attendance strategy is at an early stage of implementation and is not reaching some pupils as well as others. This means some pupils with low attendance miss out on essential learning. The school should continue to strengthen its partnership with parents to identify and address specific barriers to attendance. 23 to 25 September 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. 23 to 25 September 2025

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School details

Unique reference number 135424 DfE registration number 805/6002

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School details

Inspection number 10374856 Type of school Other Independent Special School

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School details

Website www.cambiangroup.com/childrensservices /specialisteducationservices/esddayschool s.aspx Email address paul.barnfather@cambiangroup.com

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 12 to 14 January 2022 23 to 25 September 2025

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Information about this school

 The school operates from Unit E, Sovereign Way, Sovereign Park, Hartlepool TS25 1NN.  The school is part of Cambian Childcare Limited.  The school is registered to admit 18 pupils. All pupils have an education, health and care plan.  There are Year 7 to Year 11 pupils on site.  Cambian Hartlepool School is a special school for pupils with social, emotional and mental health difficulties.  The deputy headteacher was appointed in September 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.  An inspectors met with a representative of the proprietor board.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in 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. 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 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. 23 to 25 September 2025  Inspectors also scrutinised a range of documentation. This included documentation and information relating to the standards and the school’s improvement plans.  Inspectors observed pupils’ behaviour in lessons and during social times.  An inspector spoke by telephone to two local authority representatives.  Inspectors considered the responses to Ofsted Parent View, including the free- text comments. An inspector spoke to some parents by telephone to gather their views. 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.

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Inspection team

Alison Stephenson, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Dughall McCormick His Majesty’s Inspector 23 to 25 September 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

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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