Castleview School

Inspection of Castleview School 9a & 10a Waterloo House, North Street, Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire LE65 1HS

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Inspection dates: 23 to 25 September 2025

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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 Early years provision Insufficient evidence Sixth-form provision Inadequate Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Inadequate

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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?

Pupils here do not achieve as well as they could. This is particularly the case in the sixth form, where students do not receive the education or wider experiences they deserve. All pupils have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Some pupils are starting to benefit from the changes the school is making to the provision. However, these improvements are not happening quickly enough or are not sustained.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Expectations of what pupils can achieve, especially in sixth form, are not high enough. There are insufficient opportunities for older pupils to take a wider range of higher qualifications or vocational pathways. This limits their options for their next steps beyond school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils have a mixed view of school. Younger pupils are more positive, engage well and report being well cared for. Older pupils are less enthusiastic and would like to study a broader range of subjects. There is ongoing low attendance by older pupils. Pupils are not overly concerned about bullying or unwelcome behaviours. They know staff are quick to deal with this if it does happen. There are positive relationships between staff and pupils. In general, more pupils are engaging in learning than before. The school overall is an orderly and safe place to learn in.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff skilfully consider and support pupils’ well-being. They provide a range of therapeutic approaches to help pupils successfully manage their emotions.

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better?

The school is navigating a period of change in order to improve the education pupils receive. It has rightly prioritised the need to develop its curriculum to be more ambitious and specifically meet pupils’ needs. Work on this has started, but it is still very much in the early stages. In some year groups and subjects, there is clarity on what pupils need to learn and in what order. However, this is not the case throughout the whole school, and especially not in the sixth form. This means it is not explicit to staff what specific knowledge pupils must learn and in what order. This limits how well the school can identify what pupils already know before learning something new. Therefore, gaps in pupils’ learning are not filled effectively.

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better?

This lack of curriculum clarity means teachers’ expectations of what some pupils can achieve are too low. This is less the case where staff have strong subject knowledge. In these instances, pupils can recall prior learning and complete work that is well matched and adapted to their needs. However, this does not happen consistently across the school. This results in pupils having limited choices of qualifications, and they lack access to vocational training.

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better?

The provision in the sixth form does not meet students’ needs. The curriculum is not well designed and has low aspirations. Students receive too narrow an educational offer. There are regular checks on what students know and can do, but these do not 23 to 25 September 2025 inform their next steps in learning in a systematic way. As a result, students do not achieve well and have limited wider opportunities to fully prepare them for adulthood. While students are given careers information, they lack meaningful work experience opportunities. Students frequently disengage from learning and do not come to school regularly enough.

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better?

The school promotes reading. Pupils at the early stages of reading are supported effectively to learn the sounds they need to improve their reading fluency. Pupils from Year 3 to Year 11 access carefully selected texts, which broaden their literary knowledge and widen their vocabulary. Staff check how well pupils are catching up in gaps in reading. However, while most pupils are improving their reading ability, they are not catching up as quickly as they could. There is not enough urgency from staff to ensure that pupils read books best matched to their reading knowledge.

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better?

The school has ensured that pupils’ specific needs from their education, health and care (EHC) plans are reviewed and that pupils have interventions to support these needs. However, across the school, pupils often spend too long on targets they are already capable of doing. Staff do not tailor learning well enough to move pupils on to new learning or extend their knowledge further. This hinders how quickly pupils catch up or deepen their understanding.

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better?

The school has been more successful in ensuring pupils from Year 3 to Year 11 are in lessons and completing work set. This is particularly noteworthy as these pupils historically have had negative school experiences and/or been reluctant learners. Pupils who have more challenging behaviour are managed well and safely through bespoke risk assessments. The school has made concerted efforts to improve attendance. There are instances where this has had a positive impact. However, attendance for some pupils, especially students in sixth form, remains too low.

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better?

Pupils follow a clearly specified personal development programme. They know how to stay safe, learn about healthy relationships and follow the statutory requirements for relationships and sex education. Some pupils access opportunity to learn outside the classroom at a local outdoor centre. Pupils also access types of play therapy sessions in school to meet their sensory needs. Pupils learn about democracy and equality, as well as about different beliefs. However, staff do not teach these fundamental British values in enough detail and depth. Staff do not check how securely pupils have retained this knowledge at an age-appropriate level.

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better?

The proprietor is supported by an advisory board. They are very mindful of staff well-being, and staff appreciate this. They have ensured that recent leadership appointments have brought the necessary skills and experience to lead the change the school needs and to keep pupils safe. The proprietor has ensured that systems and processes are in place to meet health and safety, safeguarding and statutory requirements of the independent school standards (the standards). This includes their duty under the Equality Act 2010 and requirements regarding the provision of information. 23 to 25 September 2025 However, there is not sufficient rigour or accuracy in how well the proprietor body oversees strategically the quality of education offered. As a result, improvements are not sustained over time and continue to fluctuate, so the school fails to meet the relevant standards for quality of education.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and proprietor)

 The school’s curriculum is not clear or precise as to how pupils’ knowledge builds over time in several subjects. This is especially the case in the sixth form. Therefore, pupils do not achieve as well as they could. The school needs to ensure that the specific knowledge pupils need to know, and in what order, is explicitly signposted in the curriculum, and robust checks are put in place to ensure it is taught as intended.  Expectations of pupils’ achievement are not high enough, especially in the sixth form. There is little opportunity to take more advanced qualification pathways, develop vocational skills or experience wider opportunities. As a result, this limits pupils’ post-16 and post-18 options. The school needs to ensure that the curriculum design is broad, ambitious and better matched to the needs of the pupils, particularly in the sixth form.  Attendance in sixth form is consistently too low, and students often disengage.

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(Information for the school and proprietor)

This impacts how well students achieve and thrive. The school needs to ensure the post-16 offer is engaging, encourages attendance and meets students’ needs, talents and interests. This includes offering meaningful work experience.  Several pupils spend too long on work or targets that they are already able to do. Therefore, pupils do not make the progress in their learning that they should. The school needs to sharpen how well it identifies and fills gaps in pupils’ knowledge and supports pupils to meet their targets in their EHC plans in a more timely manner.  Some aspects of personal development teaching do not provide pupils with enough secure knowledge about British values. This impacts how well pupils are prepared for life in modern Britain. The school needs to ensure that pupils learn in more detail about different cultures and have a more secure grasp of key concepts such as discrimination at an age-appropriate level.

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(Information for the school and proprietor)

 The systems the proprietor body has for monitoring provision are not sufficiently effective. As a result, the school is not improving quickly enough or sustaining improvements. The proprietor needs to ensure that there is more robust strategic leadership and oversight of the school so that all the standards are fully understood, accurately evaluated and consistently met over time. 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

Type of school Other independent special school

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School details

School category Independent special school

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School details

Gender of pupils in the sixth form Mixed

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form

Headteacher Malcolm Kerridge (Executive Headteacher)

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form

Annual fees (day pupils) £74,850 to £107,850.

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form

Email address enquiries@castleviewschool.org

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form

Date of previous inspection 14 to 16 November 2023 23 to 25 September 2025

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Information about this school

 Castleview School is the new name for Lewis Charlton Learning Centre from September 2025. The school is still operating under the same unique reference number. All pupils have an EHC plan. Most pupils have social, emotional and mental health needs. Some pupils have a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and/or autism.  The school operates across two sites. They are Abney Hastings and Lewis Charlton Village. Both sites are located near to each other on South Street, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, LE65 1BR. The Abney Hastings site is for key stages 2 to 4. The Lewis Charlton Village site hosts the post 16-provision.  Since the previous standard inspection, a new head of school has been appointed. They took up this post in January 2025.  The school does not use any alternative provision.  The school is commissioned for pupils age five to 19. However, there are currently no early years children on roll, so this area has not been evaluated in this

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Information about this school

inspection due to insufficient evidence.  The school’s most recent standard inspection took place in November 2023. The school received an overall judgement of inadequate at this inspection.  A progress monitoring inspection took place on 18 September 2024. A further progress monitoring inspection was carried out on 29 January 2025 and then on 23 June 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

Inspections are a point-in-time judgement about the quality of a school’s education provision.

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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

 Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: English and reading, mathematics, art and personal, social, health and economic education. For each deep dive, inspectors held discussions about the 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 other subject curriculum plans and spoke to leaders about some other subjects. 23 to 25 September 2025  The inspectors held meetings with the executive headteacher, the head of school, the senior leader for safeguarding and attendance, subject leaders, teaching staff and support staff.  The lead inspector held meetings remotely with the advisory board, including the chair of the advisory board.  The lead inspector spoke to the proprietor by telephone.  To check compliance with the standards, inspectors spoke to the executive

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Information about this inspection

headteacher, the head of school, senior leaders, the proprietor, members of the advisory board, staff and pupils. Inspectors visited lessons, observed social times and toured the school site.  The lead inspector scrutinised a range of documentation, including the school’s the school improvement plan, reports to the advisory board and advisory board minutes. The lead inspector also reviewed a range of school policies.  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.  The inspectors noted there were no responses gathered through Ofsted Parent View. The inspectors therefore spoke to some parents by telephone. Inspectors also reviewed the staff survey, the 21 pupil responses to the pupil survey and

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Information about this inspection

spoke to several pupils across all year groups. Staff were spoken to collectively and individually.

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Inspection team

Sara Boyce, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

John Spragg His Majesty’s Inspector 23 to 25 September 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; – 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. – 2(2) For the purposes of paragraph 2(1)(a), the matters are- – 2(2)(g) where the school has pupils above compulsory school age, a programme of activities which is appropriate to their needs.  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;

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Part 1. Quality of education provided

– 3(b) fosters in pupils self-motivation, the application of intellectual, physical and creative effort, interest in their work and the ability to think and learn for themselves; – 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 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(f) utilises effectively classroom resources of a good quality, quantity and range.

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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. 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

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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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