Bere Clinic School

Bere Clinic School

Address: Hemlock Road, Waterlooville, Hampshire, PO8 8QT Unique reference number (URN): 149028

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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 Exceptional

Pupils and their often complex needs are understood exceptionally well by leaders and staff. Staff are attuned to the continually changing profile and presentation of the pupils in their care, carrying out meticulous checks to understand pupils' needs and see where provision needs to be adapted to meet them. All of this is undertaken alongside an unswerving ambition for what pupils can achieve and what their futures can hold. Pupils are supported completely by staff who care about them and know them well as individuals. Pupils' educational provision is meticulously mapped to gaps in their learning, as well as areas of interest, to foster a sense of potential and ambition within them. Staff here know that, while some pupils may struggle to see ambitions for themselves, they will be ambitious for them and provide the models for hope so that this catches and becomes instilled in the pupils themselves.

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Inclusion Exceptional

Leaders undertake exceptionally precise monitoring and communication to ensure that both pupils' educational provision and their medical and clinical needs are understood and carefully considered by staff. Decisions are always made with the best interests of pupils in mind. Leaders and staff understand the fundamental need to meet pupils where they are, often in crisis and with significant barriers to pupils' wellbeing, and then build from there - and build they do.

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Inclusion Exceptional

By the very nature of this provision, pupils often join the school with significant barriers to their wellbeing, including self-esteem, resilience, and self-harm. Leaders recognise the power that education can have to help foster a sense of hope and ambition in pupils who are struggling in these areas. Alongside the clinical staff who care for their medical needs, they catch and support pupils at their most vulnerable. Bespoke and tailored educational provision is woven around an adept understanding of pupils’ needs and building of their wellbeing. It is the meticulousness and the carefully woven nature of these components that makes the inclusive practices in this school truly exceptional in nature.

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Personal development and wellbeing Exceptional

A well-planned personal social, health and economic education curriculum is a core part of pupils’ learning. Here, they develop a secure understanding of the importance of healthy relationships, and how to keep themselves safe. Pupils can talk with confidence about this learning, showing the positive impact it has on their understanding.

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Personal development and wellbeing Exceptional

Pupils are supported expertly to develop ambitions for their future prospects. Painstaking work to rebuild pupils’ self-esteem and self-perception mean that, for many, hopes for their futures are built for the first time. This is as a direct result of the supportive and enabling relationships they build with staff who help them develop this sense of hope within themselves. Pupils are supported to consider their future careers, benefiting from opportunities to work with independent careers advisers so that they consider their futures.

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Personal development and wellbeing Exceptional

Staff help pupils to develop their resilience and independence. For example, the school's ‘passports’ programme encourages pupils to work through tasks designed to support their growing independence, health and wellbeing. This programme also develops pupils'

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Strong standard

confidence in, for example, contributing to discussions with peers or engaging with professionals or unfamiliar people. This has recently culminated in the ‘enterprise passport’, where pupils have designed a business concept and marketed it in a marketplace event within the clinic. Here, pupils’ self-belief and independence is a significant representation of their increasing confidence as they grapple with profits, marketing and publicity. As a direct result of these carefully planned experiences, pupils challenge themselves and develop the confidence and capacity to move beyond their own perceived limitations.

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Strong standard

Pastoral support is exceptionally strong. Pupils are known well as individuals and leaders carefully track, anticipate and build upon pupils' needs and abilities. Pupils receive a truly exceptional offer that is unique to them and makes a significant difference to their confidence and wellbeing.

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Strong standard

Leaders ensure that there is careful and bespoke support in place to help pupils as they transition out of this school environment and back to their home schools or their next educational destinations. This includes a carefully phased transition to support pupils’ wellbeing, as well as ensuring that the successes that they have experienced in this setting can be replicated beyond its walls.

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Achievement Strong standard

Pupils achieve especially well in this school. An increasing number of pupils are completing qualifications in a broad range of subjects. This is especially impressive considering the amount of time that most pupils have previously spent out of education and as a direct result of the supportive sense of aspiration and potential that is fostered in pupils by leaders. By the very nature of this provision, pupils can attend this school for short term periods. Even within this brief period, the sense of potential and achievement developed in them is highly impressive. Where there are gaps in foundational knowledge, these are identified and addressed quickly.

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Achievement Strong standard

Pupils’ achievement is further reflected in the developing confidence and resilience that they build, often from very low starting points. A palpable sense of potential is built within pupils so that they can see a value in themselves and their futures, enabling their increasing wellbeing. Across all areas of achievement, pupils make impressive progress across the curriculum from their starting points.

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Attendance and behaviour Strong standard

Pupils join the school often having had significant interruptions to their education. The school is persistent in its efforts to ensure that, alongside their clinical commitments, pupils see the value in attending school. Personalised support is put in place to support pupils to attend more often. This work has a demonstrable impact on rapidly improving attendance for all pupils. This is especially impressive given the duration of their time in the school which is often for only a few months at a time. Leaders and staff have high expectations of pupils’ conduct and how they will treat one another. Pupils rise to meet these expectations readily, despite the challenges and barriers they face. Staff act as positive role models to pupils, exhibiting the warmth and respect that pupils then replicate. Pupils conduct themselves well and show respect towards staff and their peers. They thrive in a safe environment where supportive and positive relationships

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Attendance and behaviour Strong standard

are the foundation of their experiences.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

The curriculum and the teaching experienced by pupils is entirely bespoke and tailored to their individual needs. This is because pupils join the provision from a broad range of educational backgrounds and often have significant gaps in their prior learning. Teaching is precise, mapped to pupils’ individual needs, and designed to address and fill any gaps, including those within any foundational knowledge. As a result of this teaching, pupils build appropriate knowledge and skills rapidly during their time here.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

An increasing range of subjects ensures that pupils experience a broad and balanced curriculum. Staff work effectively with pupils' home schools to ensure that the curriculum content mirrors the curriculum in their home schools, supporting their eventual return to these institutions.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

Staff are systematic in their planning and adaptations, so that pupils feel well supported and can learn effectively. Staff are adept at giving clear explanations, and bring their strong subject expertise to bear in lessons that develop pupils’ understanding in highly effective ways. Careful thought is given to ensuring that learning opportunities are engaging. This is not at the expense of academic strength, but in recognition of the previous negative experiences that pupils may have had in their education. This precise, tailored and bespoke approach supports pupils in feeling increasingly confident and able to talk securely about their learning across the curriculum.

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Leadership and governance Strong standard

Leaders have established a highly ambitious and positive culture within their school. Both leaders and staff alike are united in their passion for their pupils to thrive, however long they may be within the school setting. Leaders and staff are tireless in their desire that things can always be better, and they are keen for ongoing improvement. They are meticulous in their approach and ensure that decisions are made with the best interest of pupils in mind. They encourage, build, and tease out small victories and confidences for pupils, knowing how these build and support the growing development of pupils so that they too begin to believe it themselves.

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Leadership and governance Strong standard

The proprietor body has an astute understanding of the school and its work. They offer support and challenge to leaders in equal measure, driven by a desire to continually make things better still. They use their expertise to fulfil their statutory duties expertly and ensure that all the relevant independent school standards are met.

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Leadership and governance Strong standard

Staff are passionate about their work and love working in the school. They talk about the strong sense of community and how leaders look after their wellbeing. Staff receive appropriate training and ongoing professional development so that they can develop their practice further.

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Leadership and governance Strong standard

Parents are especially positive about the impact of the work the school undertakes with their children. They recognise and value the way in which their education continues to be supported within a carefully planned set of systems that support their ongoing wellbeing and health needs.

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

Bere Clinic School caters for pupils who attend a Tier 4 hospital placement. This means that pupils reside on site as part of the clinic, and attend the school during the day. As a result, most pupils attending this school do so for short-term periods as part of their clinical care, and do so at a time of crisis. When they arrive, they receive an exceptionally strong package of support and education that is tailored around their specific needs.

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

Most pupils come to this school having spent significant periods absent from school and subsequently with significant gaps in their education. These gaps in learning are identified so that learning can be tailored to address these and build a sense of purpose and achievement educationally, alongside pupils’ clinical and health progression. Pupils feel a sense of belonging and connection with staff who get to know them and their needs especially well. The highly positive relationships between staff and pupils mean that pupils trust staff and are willing to share concerns if they arise. Pupils feel safe and confident that staff will listen to them when they report concerns.

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

Pupils behave well and treat one another and staff with respect. Pupils benefit from exceptionally strong support for their pastoral needs. Leaders are attuned to the balance between pupils' wellbeing and their education. They understand the fundamental positive difference that can be made to pupils’ wellbeing where they begin to feel success across a range of endeavours. Despite sometimes only short-term placements at the school, the impact on pupils’ development is significant and meaningful.

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Next steps

Leaders need to continue their already highly impressive work so as to further refine and embed their practice, in order that their transformational impact on pupils can be sustained.

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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

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Independent school standards

Independent school standards are either met or not met for each category. standards. These are the requirements set out in the schedule to the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014.

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Independent school standards

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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Independent school standards

Inspectors spoke with a range of leaders during the inspection, including the headteacher and deputy headteacher. Inspectors also spoke with staff and pupils, as well as a range of clinical staff. The lead inspector held a meeting with the chair of the proprietor body, as well as the hospital director and the director of education.

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Independent school standards

The inspectors confirmed the following information about the school:

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Independent school standards

Bere Clinic School is an independent school for pupils aged 11 to 18 that caters for the education of pupils who are placed within Bere Clinic, operating from the same site. Bere Clinic specialises in clinical support for pupils with eating disorders. Patients reside at the clinic for the duration of their treatment, which can vary between 3 and 18 months. Pupils are dual-registered with their home school. All pupils have their places funded by the local authority.

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Independent school standards

The proprietor body is Elysium Healthcare which operates a number of other specialist education and healthcare settings, including 3 other schools. The chair of the proprietor body is Sheetal Shah. There is also a head of education who provides a link between the school and the proprietor body.

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Independent school standards

The school currently uses no forms of alternative provision.

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Independent school standards

The school's email address is staylor@elysiumeducation.co.uk.

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Independent school standards

1. Quality of education provided Standards met

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Independent school standards

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

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Team inspector:

Laura James, His Majesty's Inspector All standards have been met.

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Team inspector:

3. Welfare, health and safety of pupils Standards met

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Team inspector:

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

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Team inspector:

5. Premises of and accommodation at schools Standards met

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Team inspector:

6. Provision of information Standards met

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Team inspector:

7. Manner in which complaints are handled Standards met

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Team inspector:

8. Quality of leadership in and management of schools Standards 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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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.

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Insufficient evidence

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

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

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