The Ashley School Academy Trust

Inspection report for residential special school - The Ashley School Academy Trust 1 The Ashley School Academy Trust The Ashley School Academy Trust, Ashley Downs, Lowestoft, Suffolk NR32 4EU Residential provision inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this residential special school

This is a maintained residential special school with 204 pupils aged between 7 and 16 years on roll. The school is situated in a residential area in Lowestoft and caters for children with complex and moderate learning difficulties and associated disabilities, such as speech and language disorders and autism.

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Information about this residential special school

The residential accommodation is provided in 2 houses that are located on the school site. The total number of residential pupils is currently 38. Residential pupils can board between Monday and Friday for up to 4 nights.

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Information about this residential special school

The head of care has been in post since May 2021. He has a relevant qualification for the role.

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Information about this residential special school

The inspectors only inspected the social care provision at this school.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The residential special school provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the school contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people.

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outstanding

Date of previous inspection: 18 November 2025

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding Inspection report for residential special school - The Ashley School Academy Trust 2

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Summary of findings

Leaders have ensured a consistently outstanding quality of provision over several years. Children continue to benefit from exceptional care and support provided by skilled staff who know them well. Children make excellent progress with their independence and social skills. Children enjoy a tremendous range of creative experiences. Feedback from families and professionals is superb. Strong work by safeguarding leads has resulted in children being safer. Inspection report for residential special school - The Ashley School Academy Trust 3

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outstanding

Children benefit from exceptionally high-quality care and support. They form strong, positive relationships with skilled staff. The kind and child-centred approach from staff means that children feel valued and cared for. The staff know them very well and are genuinely interested in them.

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outstanding

One child has no family to call in the evenings. The residential manager has made himself available every evening, including those days that he is not working, to take a phone call from the child for the child to tell him about his day and the activities and things he has done. This is a wonderful example of a child-centred approach that will resonate with the child and help them to feel like they matter.

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outstanding

Children are making excellent progress with their independence because of their experience in the residential provision. They are learning valuable life skills that they can transfer from the residential provision to their homes. Parents and children talk enthusiastically about the skills that children have developed.

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outstanding

Children are developing friendships that mean a lot to them. Children play together with enthusiasm and excitement. Families and professionals report significant improvements for children in respect of their social skills and wellbeing. A social worker said:

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outstanding

'He [the child] tells me, 'I learnt this in residence'. His social communication skills have improved immensely. He has opportunities to participate in activities that he does not do outside of school. He can take turns and listen to peers' views.'

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outstanding

Children experience extremely well-considered introductions and endings to residential stays. The most recent cohort of children have a thoughtful and inclusive video to capture their time in residence.

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outstanding

Children benefit from support with reading during their stays. This has helped most children to make progress in their reading, compared to children who do not attend residential. All the children who access the residential provision have moved on to further education, employment or training.

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outstanding

The residential accommodation has been carefully and creatively curated. Interesting and imaginative displays detail activities and targets. These inspire interest from the children. These colourful and meaningful displays contribute to a welcoming and interesting environment for children.

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outstanding

Children benefit from an exciting, invigorating and innovative range of activities. Staff embrace opportunities for children to have new experiences. Leaders support staff Inspection report for residential special school - The Ashley School Academy Trust 4 with the training to enable this. This includes staff who are trained to lead archery sessions.

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outstanding

Staff are alert to the way in which children's diagnoses affect their needs. They use this knowledge to apply creative approaches to help children to contribute to discussions. For example, leaders have purchased a range of physiotherapy style equipment and chairs for children who may struggle to sit still to use while attending meetings. This has enabled children to participate in group discussions and house meetings in ways that would otherwise not have been possible.

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outstanding

Feedback from external professionals is exceptional. A social worker said:

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outstanding

'They are great. Great in working with us. Great at working with families. Great at working with children. Great at communicating with us. They are great at accommodating us. They are great.'

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Children can identify people with whom they could share concerns and worries. Independent people visit the provision. The children know their roles and can identify them.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Children have access to an adapted telephone in the residential accommodation. This has individual photographs of each child with a short number on. If the child types the number on their photograph into the phone, it rings their family. There are also similar photographs with numbers for helplines and external agencies. These provide children with easier routes to speak to families and external people if they feel they need to.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Children said that bullying is not an issue in residential. One child raised an issue linked to transport. It was through the child's use of the 'emotions board' display in the residential kitchen that this issue was identified. Staff followed this up and the child had absolute confidence that this would be addressed.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Children benefit from staff who understand and implement clear boundaries. The light, natural approach allows children to maintain their exuberance without this tipping into difficult behaviour. There has been no use of physical intervention for over 3 years.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

There are a number of staff who are designated safeguarding leads. Designated safeguarding leads in the school work closely with social care professionals to ensure and increase the safety of children. This has included innovative working to gather the views of children when they have not wanted to speak to social workers. Designated safeguarding leads have visited children in their homes to ensure their welfare when social care professionals have not been able to do so. This is a consequence of the continued trust and relationships that parents have with the school staff. Inspection report for residential special school - The Ashley School Academy Trust 5 Leaders, managers and staff have a generally good understanding of the risks associated with individual children. During the inspection, leaders and managers took action to address inconsistencies in some risk assessments. However, these had not resulted in any harm.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Staff have a generally good understanding of how to raise clear safeguarding concerns about colleagues. Some staff demonstrated a limited understanding of the process of raising concerns when they are more of a nagging doubt. Leaders took immediate action to address this.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers place children at the centre of what they do. They are inspirational and ambitious. The residential manager exudes a calm and humble approach that translates into a quiet confidence. His approach influences the feel and culture of the provision, inspiring a staff team who provide extremely high-quality care and support without arrogance.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers have overseen a high-quality service with a sustained history of excellent inspection outcomes. They recognise that this does not happen by accident and are hyper alert to the risk of complacency. Leaders seek out, and are highly receptive to, feedback, acting on this to maintain and improve quality.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers encourage staff to use their curiosity to explore their interests. They have enabled staff to complete residential-focused research work and used this research to inform their approach to the residential provision. For example, one member of staff has been supported to research the use of visual aids to improve communication with children who struggle to receive verbal instructions.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers know the children extremely well. They know their histories, current needs and the plans to meet these. Children's progress is monitored through a variety of frameworks, with a focus on independence skills and social, communication skills. All of these are linked to the children's individual targets in their education, health and care plans.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff feel very well supported. They receive regular supervision sessions and training. They are encouraged and enabled to pursue learning in areas of interest. Regular team meetings take place. Leaders include creative, nuanced safeguarding questions in these weekly meetings to help test and develop staff knowledge.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The overall feedback from external professionals is exceptional. A social worker said:

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

'I cannot speak highly enough of what they offer. He is a different child since he went there. His confidence, his self-esteem. At residential he gets to do so many things, activities, travel, training, cooking, basically all the things he will need as an adult. I cannot stress enough how he has developed.' Inspection report for residential special school - The Ashley School Academy Trust 6 Parents also provide wonderful feedback. One parent said, 'All these things that we hope for our children, they gave her.' Another parent said, 'They delivered all we hoped for and more.' Inspection report for residential special school - The Ashley School Academy Trust 7

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Point for improvement

 School leaders should ensure that they explore the staff team's understanding of low-level concerns and the process for reporting them. Leaders should maintain a mindset that recognises that not reporting does not necessarily equate to no incidents.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people using the social care common inspection framework. This inspection was carried out under the Children Act 1989 to assess the effectiveness of the service, how it meets the core functions of the service as set out in legislation, and to consider how well it complies with the national minimum standards. Inspection report for residential special school - The Ashley School Academy Trust 8

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Residential special school details

Social care unique reference number: SC024573

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Residential special school details

Headteacher/teacher in charge: Mr Thomas Ward

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Residential special school details

Type of school: Residential Special School

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Residential special school details

Email address: ThomasWard@ashleyschool.co.uk

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Inspectors

Ashley Hinson, Social Care Inspector Andrea Bounden, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for residential special school - The Ashley School Academy Trust 9 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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