Horizons Independent School

Horizons Independent School

Address: 60 Mendip Road, Birkenhead, Cheshire, CH42 8NU Unique reference number (URN): 151346

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Safeguarding standards met

The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, pupils are made safer and feel safe.

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How we evaluate safeguarding

When we inspect schools for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:

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How we evaluate safeguarding

Met: The school has an open and positive culture of safeguarding. All legal requirements are met. Not met: The school has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all legal requirements are met. Insufficient evidence: Inspectors were unable to gather sufficient evidence to judge whether safeguarding standards are met.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Pupils who attend Horizons have significant and multiple barriers to learning that have previously prevented them from engaging fully with education. Most pupils experience success at Horizons because staff take the time and care to identify and understand their individual needs well. This includes pupils’ special educational needs and/or disabilities, as well as any other factors which have made their educational journey more challenging.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Staff use what they know about pupils to design approaches and strategies that help pupils to build trust in adults, regulate their emotions and, over time, improve their attitudes to learning. Staff give pupils individually planned opportunities to experience success. This helps to build pupils’ self-esteem and builds their interest in learning. Staff work well with a wide range of external agencies and experts to craft a suitable offer for each pupil. Leaders regularly check that the offer for each pupil helps them to make progress from their starting points.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Leaders provide a wealth of training for staff that increases their understanding of the most suitable approaches to help each pupil. This helps staff to share leaders’ determination to reintegrate pupils back into full-time education. Leaders make appropriate use of alternative provision for a small number of pupils.

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Achievement Needs attention

At the time of the inspection, most pupils do not follow an academic pathway. This is because leaders have rightly prioritised pupils’ reintegration with education and their personal development. Pupils’ achievement in the short time that the school has been open has been centred on the progress they have made from their starting points in terms of their behaviour, attitudes and attendance. All of the elements that leaders have chosen to focus on are setting pupils up well for their next steps in learning. However, pupils' academic achievement is limited due to the short time that the school has been open.

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Achievement Needs attention

All pupils who attend the school are disadvantaged. Some pupils face significant and ongoing challenges that make it hard for them to engage in learning. Leaders identify pupils’ starting points in terms of reading, writing and mathematics. They help pupils to reduce the gaps in their knowledge, although this is at the early stages of development.

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Attendance and behaviour Needs attention

Pupils join the school with typically low attendance at their previous settings. Leaders work closely with pupils and families to provide the support that they need to improve their attendance over time. Over time, most pupils break the habit of non-attendance and get into better routines, with regular attendance at school. All pupils who attend the school are disadvantaged. Leaders know pupils’ individual, unique circumstances very well. They use this information to provide bespoke support that helps pupils to improve. Despite this, some of the analysis that leaders complete about pupils’ attendance over time is at the very early stages. At this point in time, it is difficult to see the impact of this work in pinpointing small steps for improvement.

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Attendance and behaviour Needs attention

Although the school has only recently opened, the biggest impact on most pupils has been on their behaviour and attitudes to learning. Previously, these aspects would have been pupils’ barriers to learning. Leaders support pupils to build trusting relationships with staff and each other. This helps pupils to resolve conflict. Staff engage pupils in interesting activities which build their confidence and help them to feel part of the school community. Pupils do not worry about bullying because they know that the school is a place where everyone can be themselves and be accepted.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Leaders have ambitious plans for pupils to learn a broad range of subjects, once their emotional needs are fully met and understood. Currently, pupils do not receive this offer. Leaders know that the curriculum will have to change as the school develops, as the curriculum for pupils up to this point has been focused on pupils’ emotional regulation, improving behaviour and attitudes and building relationships. These aspects have been essential skills for pupils to build before they can move to learning an academic curriculum.

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Curriculum and teaching Needs attention

Staff have recently started to assess gaps in pupils’ knowledge. They are starting to use this information to plan learning opportunities that challenge pupils academically, although this work is at the early stages. One of the most successful aspects of pupils’ development, in the short time that the school has been open, has been the impact on their communication skills. Pupils receive bespoke support that helps to give them a voice, as well as an outlet for their emotions. This helps pupils to share their interests, take part in learning and provide meaningful feedback to leaders about what it is like to attend the school. For some pupils, this is the first time that they have felt their voice is heard and important.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

The proprietor and headteacher know the school well. Leaders recognise that there are aspects of the school that need more time to reach their high ambitions for pupils’ education. The proprietor holds leaders to account for the offer that pupils receive and challenges leaders to make sure that pupils can succeed in this school where typically they have not before. Leaders and the proprietor set out actions for improving the school that are well thought out. The proprietor makes sure that the necessary resources are available for leaders and checks the impact of the decisions that leaders make on pupils’ education. However, the proprietor has not made sure that all of the independent school standards have been met.

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Leadership and governance Needs attention

Leaders take bold decisions to prioritise certain aspects of the provision at this early stage of the school’s development. For example, the focus up to this point has been on establishing pupils into school routines and supporting them to be emotionally ready to learn. This has been done in a way that sets pupils up well for their further learning and development. Leaders set out a programme of training for staff that is carefully considered. Staff are skilled at recognising pupils’ needs and planning an offer for them that supports self-regulation and builds trusting relationships. Leaders commission experts to support this aspect of teachers’ development. Staff feel well supported in their roles and value the time that leaders take to make their voices heard.

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Personal development and wellbeing Needs attention

Pupils’ personal development is important to leaders, but some parts of the programme are at the early stages of implementation. Pupils' knowledge about the world around them is not secure. Leaders recognise that most pupils who attend the school have multiple and complex barriers to their wellbeing. Pupils typically join the school finding it hard to recognise and manage their emotions. The first phase of each pupil’s journey at the school is to help them to be emotionally ready to learn.

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Personal development and wellbeing Needs attention

As most pupils join the school with significant gaps in their knowledge of the personal, social, health and economic education curriculum, leaders prioritise the parts of this curriculum that will have the most impact on pupils’ safety. For example, some pupils have missed important parts of the relationships and sex education curriculum. Leaders commission external experts to give pupils the vital knowledge that they need. In turn, this helps pupils to recognise unhealthy relationships and know how to keep themselves safe. Pupils develop an awareness of support avenues and build faith in adults to act where something concerns them.

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Personal development and wellbeing Needs attention

Leaders have recently used the expertise of a specialist careers adviser to support pupils to develop aspirations for when they leave the school. This includes pupils building their understanding of a realistic pathway, including knowing what qualifications they will need. Over time, this helps pupils to think realistically about their future where previously this had not been possible.

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Personal development and wellbeing Needs attention

Pupils benefit from well-considered pastoral support. Staff use the productive relationships they have with pupils to build independence, resilience and trust. This helps pupils to share when something worries them or to ask for help or advice.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

For many pupils who attend this school, this is their first successful experience of education. However, most pupils do not learn an academic curriculum. Pupils typically join the school after periods out of education or with a turbulent previous engagement with providers. This school helps pupils to reintegrate into education because it values pupils as individuals. Staff know pupils’ needs well. They use this to plan an offer for each pupil that captures their interest and helps them to develop essential aspects of their personal development. The school has only been open for a short time. In this time, leaders have established strong relationships with pupils on roll and have started to develop routines that will set pupils up well for their next stage of learning, employment or training. Over time, pupils begin to enjoy attending the school. They do not worry about bullying. Pupils start to improve their attendance as they build trust in staff to listen to them and

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

support them. That said, leaders' actions to improve attendance are at the early stages. Staff have recently started to use the information they have about pupils to reduce the barriers to learning that pupils join the school with.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Leaders plan a range of opportunities for each pupil that go beyond what they would normally experience. These well-planned experiences support pupils’ character development and open their eyes to learning in a way that has often not been possible before. However, some parts of the personal development offer are underdeveloped. That said, trusting relationships between staff and pupils help pupils to regulate their emotions and to feel safe and secure. Over time, pupils learn to share any worries they have with staff as they know they are there to help them.

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Next steps

Leaders should ensure that the independent school standards are met consistently and securely. Leaders should make sure that the most important knowledge is clearly identified in subjects across the curriculum. Leaders should make sure that pupils have the opportunity to learn the academic curriculum once they are emotionally ready. Leaders should support more pupils to work towards gaining recognised qualifications. Leaders should make sure that attendance information enables them to suitably identify patterns and trends. Leaders should shape the personal development offer to support more pupils to build appropriate knowledge across the personal, social, health and economic education curriculum.

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About this inspection

Inspectors carried out this standard inspection under section 109(1) and (2) of the Education and Skills Act 2008 and checked the school's compliance with 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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About this inspection

Following our renewed inspection framework, all inspections are now led by His Majesty's Inspectors (HMIs) or by Ofsted Inspectors (OIs) who have previously served as HMIs.

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About this inspection

Inspectors spoke with the headteacher, the assistant headteachers, the proprietor and other leaders. They also spoke with pupils and staff about what it is like to be part of the school.

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About this inspection

The name of the proprietor is Roger Boulton.

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Independent school standards

Independent school standards are either met or not met for each category. The fees currently charged are £45,000 to £60,000.

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Independent school standards

The school's email address is roger@horizonseducation.org.

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Independent school standards

All pupils who attend the school have an education, health and care plan. The school caters for pupils with social, emotional and mental health needs, autism and associated needs.

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Independent school standards

The school uses 2 unregistered alternative provisions for pupils.

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Independent school standards

The school is located at 60 Mendip Road, Birkenhead CH42 8NU.

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Independent school standards

This is the school's first standard inspection. The school was registered by the Department for Education on 21 January 2025. However, the school did not open until 1 September 2025.

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Independent school standards

1. Quality of education provided Standards not met

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Independent school standards

The following standards have not been met: Paragraph 2(1)

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Independent school standards

The standard in this paragraph is met if–

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Independent school standards

(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; and

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Independent school standards

For the purposes of paragraph (2)(1)(a), the matters are–

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Independent school standards

(a) full-time supervised education for pupils of compulsory school age (construed in accordance with section 8 of the Education Act 1996), which gives pupils experience in linguistic, mathematical, scientific, technological, human and social, physical and aesthetic and creative education;

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Independent school standards

(d) personal, social, health and economic education which– (i) reflects the school's aim and ethos; and

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Independent school standards

(e) for pupils receiving secondary education, access to accurate, up-to-date careers guidance that– (iii) helps to encourage them to fulfil their potential;

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Independent school standards

(h) that all pupils have the opportunity to learn and make progress; and (i) effective preparation of pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life in British society.

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Independent school standards

2. Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils Standards met

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Independent school standards

3. Welfare, health and safety of pupils Standards met

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Independent school standards

4. Suitability of staff, supply staff, and proprietors Standards met

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Independent school standards

5. Premises of and accommodation at schools Standards met

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Independent school standards

6. Provision of information Standards met

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Independent school standards

7. Manner in which complaints are handled Standards met

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Independent school standards

8. Quality of leadership in and management of schools Standards not met

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Facts and figures used on inspection

This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection.

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Pupils with special educational needs (SEN) support

The following standards have not been met: Paragraph 34(1)

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Pupils with special educational needs (SEN) support

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–

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Pupils with special educational needs (SEN) support

(a) demonstrate good skills and knowledge appropriate to their role so that the independent school standards are met consistently; (b) fulfil their responsibilities effectively so that the independent school standards are met consistently; and (c) actively promote the wellbeing of pupils.

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Exceptional

Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other schools can learn from it.

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Strong standard

The school reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of them.

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Expected standard

The school is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional standards expected of them.

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Needs attention

The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements.

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Urgent improvement

The school needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of education and/or care.

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Insufficient evidence

Inspectors were unable to gather reliable enough evidence to grade an evaluation area. This is rare and normally only happens if there are no pupils on roll at the school. services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.

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Insufficient evidence

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Insufficient evidence

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Insufficient evidence

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Insufficient evidence

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