Setting

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 1231 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Matt Jacobs Executive headteacher The Workplace Down Road Bexhill-on-Sea East Sussex TN39 4HS

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Serious weaknesses monitoring inspection of The Workplace

This letter sets out the findings from the monitoring inspection that took place on 15 October 2025, on behalf of His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills. The monitoring inspection was carried out under section 8(2) of the Education Act 2005 and was the first monitoring inspection since the school was judged to have serious weaknesses following the graded (section 5) inspection that took place in February 2025.

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Serious weaknesses monitoring inspection of The Workplace

The purpose of a monitoring inspection is not to grade the school’s key and (where applicable) provision judgements, but to identify and report on the school’s progress. It is to highlight to the school and parents any improvements that school leaders have made since the school’s previous graded inspection.

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Serious weaknesses monitoring inspection of The Workplace

During the inspection, Jo Brinkley, His Majesty’s Inspector (HMI) and I discussed with you and other senior leaders, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the trust, trustees and the local authority the actions that have been taken to improve the school since the most recent graded inspection. We discussed the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also carried out visits to lessons, meetings with other staff and document scrutiny. I have considered all this in coming to my judgement.

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Leaders have made progress to improve the school, but more work is

necessary for the school to no longer be judged as having serious weaknesses.

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designation

Since the previous inspection, the trust has ensured that those responsible for governance have the necessary skills and knowledge to challenge weaknesses in the school’s provision. There have been changes to the leadership structure to improve expertise and capacity. Notably, the team responsible for the management of safeguarding has been widened to improve the timeliness and rigour of addressing safeguarding concerns. This inspection focused primarily on the effectiveness of safeguarding. Through a range of inspection activities, inspectors evaluated the impact of leaders’ actions to embed a culture of safeguarding. Inspectors also reviewed wider areas of the school’s provision.

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The school has taken some positive steps to improve the curriculum. Leaders have rightly prioritised the reading curriculum to ensure that pupils have the necessary literacy skills that allow them access to wider learning opportunities. Leaders have also reviewed curriculum pathways to enable pupils to pursue a range of vocational qualifications, alongside core academic subjects. Pupils benefit from a well-resourced learning environment offering hands-on, practical experiences in subjects, such as construction. The school has systems in place to identify and support pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). However, there is further work to do to in training staff to adapt their teaching and resources to meet pupils’ needs.

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Leaders are keen to ensure all pupils in the school can successfully reintegrate into mainstream education for post-16 learning. However, there is a lack of clear intent within the wider curriculum itself, meaning pupils are not learning as ambitiously as they could to reach this end point. Many of the improvements leaders have made to the curriculum are in their infancy and it is, therefore, too early to see the impact of this work.

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designation

Staff across the school show genuine care and concern for pupils. Relationships are positive, with staff generally understanding how best to support pupils’ pastoral needs. However, typically, this care is not backed up with suitably robust strategic thinking. Leaders have taken some effective action to make their expectations for pupils’ behaviour clearer. This has resulted in a broadly calm environment, where pupils report that they feel safe. However, there is a heavy reliance on bespoke adult support to help pupils comply with expectations. Pupils are not supported with a broad enough set of strategies to help them self-regulate and make positive choices independently. Where negative behaviours escalate, they are typically addressed through the use of suspensions. As a result, there continues to be a prevalence of negative behaviours resulting in suspensions and missed learning time. Leaders have not fully considered strategies to keep pupils safe

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designation

within the setting when responding to disruptive or dangerous behaviour.

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Leaders do not have sufficiently strong oversight of the impact of their work to improve attendance. Staff support pupils practically by providing daily transport. The school has established daily routines for following up non-attendance. However, leaders do not have a clear or systematic approach to identifying patterns of absence that might influence their future actions to secure more positive attendance. As a result, there are too many pupils for whom persistent absence remains very high. Consideration of the wider safeguarding risks associated with poor attendance is not as thorough as it could be. The trust board has improved its work. New trustees ensure they have the tools to challenge the school and hold leaders to account. The realigned trust board has the knowledge and expertise to fulfil its function more effectively. Trustees have quickly and accurately identified gaps in strategic oversight and are beginning to tackle these.

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However, this is a recent improvement and comes at a point of transition. As a result, it is too early to see the impact of trustees’ work.

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Currently, the school’s approach to reviewing and addressing previous weaknesses lacks coherence and strategic vision. It sets out clear procedures but does not focus sufficiently on changing the school’s culture. While leaders convey a clear commitment to supporting pupils, there is a limited sense of high expectation or ambition, and an unclear direction of travel. Leaders have responded to weaknesses identified in the last inspection report. This has led to a degree of improvement, notably around the daily management of safeguarding concerns. However, there is more work to do.

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The school has made demonstrable progress in addressing areas of weakness in safeguarding practice. However, safeguarding remains ineffective.

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Leaders have ensured that safeguarding concerns are recorded clearly, with detailed actions and timely referrals to agencies where required. They demonstrate diligence in escalating concerns to protect children from harm. Leaders have created capacity within the safeguarding and pastoral teams to reduce the likelihood of risks being missed. They ensure a more collaborative approach when reviewing support for vulnerable pupils. Leaders recognise the importance of educating pupils about keeping themselves safe. They are beginning to use their learning from safeguarding trends to shape the personal, social and health education curriculum. Staff are far better informed about how and when to report concerns about pupils. Pupils feel safe and are confident that staff will take their concerns seriously.

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While these necessary improvements are beginning to have impact, they are not yet fully embedded to a point where there is a secure culture of safeguarding. There is further work to do to ensure that these relatively new systems and practices support staff in connecting and pre-empting risk factors. Leaders need to ensure that staff are consistently knowledgeable in their understanding of contextual risk. This will enable them to be more professionally curious when considering possible indicators of concern. Leaders, in turn, need to ensure that they are open to ongoing learning and challenge, so that systems and practices to safeguard pupils are kept under continuous review.

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Leaders have been receptive to external support and guidance. They have worked effectively with the local authority to support the process of improving safeguarding practice. However, the process of continuous review in the school is not yet sufficiently embedded or consistently well informed. As such, it is too early to determine how effectively the school can continue to embed a robust culture of safeguarding in the absence of external support and oversight. I am copying this letter to the chair of the board of trustees and the CEO of the Sabden Multi Academy Trust, the Department for Education’s regional director and the director of children’s services for East Sussex. This letter will be published on the Ofsted reports website.

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