Tor School

134694 Unique Reference Number Somerset LEA 282646 Inspection number 28 February 2006 to 28 February 2006 Inspection dates John Lilly AI Reporting inspector

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This inspection was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Wells Road School address Pupil referral unit Type of school Glastonbury Community special School category BA6 9BY 5 to 16 Age range of pupils 01458 832 425 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 01458 831 220 Fax number 12 Number on roll Mrs Gloria Cawood Chair of governors The governing body Appropriate authority Mrs Patsey Palmer Headteacher Not applicable Date of previous inspection

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Inspection number Inspection dates Age group 282646 28 February 2006 - 5 to 16 28 February 2006 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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This document may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that the information quoted is reproduced without adaptation and the source and date of publication are stated.

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Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied.

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Introduction

The inspection was carried out by one Additional Inspector.

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Description of the school

The Mendip Tuition Group operates as part of the Somerset Medical Tuition Service, which was formed two years ago. The Group moved under a year ago into permanent accommodation in Glastonbury; this is on the campus of a comprehensive school. The group supports pupils who cannot attend mainstream schools either because they have short-term and longer-term medical problems, have significant psychological problems or they are girls of school age who are pregnant or have just given birth. Some pupils attend the centre for lessons, but the majority are supported at home or in other places such as a satellite location in Frome.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: Mendip Tuition Group, 28 February 2006 to 28 February 2006

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Grade: 2

The Mendip Tuition Group provides well for the pupils and this support is at times outstanding. Working very productively within the Somerset Medical Tuition Service, managers and staff have a very clear understanding of what the pupils need and how they can meet these needs; standards are rapidly improving. Whatever the setting, teaching and learning are good and often excellent. Staff are outstanding at developing the pupils’ self-confidence and independence. This excellent personal development helps pupils to play their full part in their own learning and development, even though progress at times can only be in small steps. Pupils say they hugely enjoy their work and being part of a safe and caring community that helps them achieve. This shows in both their very good behaviour and also their good attitudes towards learning and other people. Attendance is good and shows a strong improving trend, even when

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Grade: 2

other factors work against it. The Mendip Group has a well-planned improvement programme that is very well led and managed; self-evaluation is continuous, rigorous and accurate. Already outstandingly good are the internet-based ‘virtual classroom’, the partnership with mental health professionals and the management that overcomes the geographic problem of ‘isolation’ facing many pupils and staff. This problem can also affect parents and carers, who say they value highly the support their children receive and their own partnership with staff, and that they no longer feel ‘isolated’. Less developed, whilst already satisfactory, are specialist careers education and partnership with mainstream schools. The Group offers good value for money and has high capacity for future improvement.

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What the school should do to improve further

• develop specialist careers education so that it provides more continuous support for pupils • develop further the partnership with mainstream schools.

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Grade: 2

Achievement is good. The pupils’ attainment when they join the service varies considerably from extremely low to, in some cases, above average. Teaching is highly individual and based upon very accurate initial assessment of what the pupils already know. Continuous assessment, often involving the pupils themselves, celebrates progress made and leads to very precise objectives for the next steps in learning. Consequently, pupils make good and often very good progress whatever their starting point and whatever severe barriers to learning and personal development need to be overcome. When the barriers are great, parents told the inspector of their joy in their child learning to read and write; more able pupils spoke of the confidence their success gave them and how this would lead to further education and training in preparation for future careers. Pupils working with the service reach their potential and as their

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Grade: 2

2 Inspection Report: Mendip Tuition Group, 28 February 2006 to 28 February 2006 personal development improves, that potential increases. Staff recognise this increasing potential and set more challenging objectives to meet.

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Grade: 1

The pupils’ personal development is outstanding, equally so for each of the spiritual, moral, social and cultural aspects. Pupils move forward with their teachers’ help, even when these pupils face severe psychological challenges and frequent setbacks. There are many examples of pupils moving from being completely isolated by their problems to becoming sufficiently confident to join others in community life and learning. Evidence includes pupils gaining the confidence to access the ‘virtual classroom’ and others moving on to learn with others within the Centre. Their personal development shows in their ability to become highly involved in their learning and very perceptive in their attitudes towards others. Behaviour in the centre is very good. Attendance is good. The pupils face many more barriers to good attendance than pupils in mainstream, and yet these are mainly overcome both at the Centre and also when joining the ‘virtual

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Grade: 1

classroom’ or more one-to-one support. At an individual level, records of attendance show steady improvement, often resulting in 100% attendance. When other factors reduce attendance, once these have been overcome, pupils return to the improved attendance they had achieved before. The strongest evidence of their personal development is the way most pupils successfully progress to further education and training after they leave the centre. Others are equally successful when they return to mainstream schooling. Pupils say they succeed because they feel safe and cared for as individuals. They value highly the way that they are helped to manage their own learning and behaviour, seeing their teachers as partners. They explain how what they have learned helps them to be safe and healthy, to play their part in the community and to prepare for their future lives. They are happy and enjoy their learning because they feel that they are

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Grade: 1

achieving much more than many had done previously.

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Grade: 2

Teaching is good and often outstanding. Consequently, learning is also good, overcoming the many difficulties the pupils face. All teaching is very well planned. It is based upon accurate and continuous assessment, a process that usually involves the pupils themselves. This information is drawn together in a single document that is continually updated. This means that each pupil is on a unique individual programme of learning that is highly focused on their core needs and ever-changing day-to-day requirements. Teachers and teaching assistants build a very strong rapport with their pupils and therefore learning becomes a shared activity. Outstanding is the way the interactive ‘virtual classroom’ enables pupils wherever they may be to ‘come to school’ 3 Inspection Report: Mendip Tuition Group, 28 February 2006 to 28 February 2006 and relate through text and conversation with the central teacher. They receive

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Grade: 2

immediate feedback and help, and the teacher can continually track and aid progress. Teachers working one-to-one with pupils in their homes or other locations are very skilled both at teaching and in building the confidence that learning requires. When teaching is good but not outstanding, teachers have a tendency to speak too much, preventing the pupils from making their full contribution.

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Grade: 3

The curriculum in its many forms is satisfactory and has many good features. Despite the limited time available, it has breadth, including art, music and physical education, while focusing on English, mathematics, science and information technology. There is a strong ‘enrichment’ element that includes visits and other activities, and these are underpinned by a core programme of personal, social and health education, including citizenship. Careers education is adequate but could usefully be developed to become more continuous. Pupils feel that although most of which they learn is very relevant to their needs, better careers education would be helpful.

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Grade: 2

Care, guidance and support are good with many outstanding features. Taken, together, it is these elements pupils value most and that they feel are, above all, helping them find success. Provision meets statutory requirements. Every pupil has an individual education and support plan that is regularly reviewed. These reviews now largely involve parents and carers and the pupils. The benefits of this are becoming clear - for example, the understanding of a pupil's problems is greater and objectives to meet are more relevant. A great strength of the provision as a whole is the partnership with mental health professionals. These professionals find their partnership with the Tuition Group “very useful” because Group staff can use specialist insights on mental health to support pupils continually. Similarly, educational staff have benefited greatly from training provided by mental health professionals. The Group’s own self-evaluation has

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Grade: 2

identified a need to make careers counselling and guidance more continuous, and the inspector and the pupils agree. There are positive relationships with mainstream schools but difficulty with communication sometimes causes problems. As a result, support and guidance is not as seamless as it needs to be. The partnership with parents is close and continuous, and a major factor in the pupils’ success. Overcoming the problems posed by ‘isolation’, the Group ensures pupils’ safety

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Grade: 2

Leadership and management are good; the Mendip Tuition Group is on a powerful journey of improvement. Rigorous, accurate and continuous self-evaluation shows managers, however, that this journey has made a very good start but is not finished. 4 Inspection Report: Mendip Tuition Group, 28 February 2006 to 28 February 2006 There are sensible performance management systems in place and this means staff receive regular feedback on their work and on how to improve. The key gain has been the willingness of staff to gain feedback that helps them improve – in the past, one effect of ‘isolation’ was that this sort of systematic feedback and accountability was not routine. Even now, they find it difficult to compare their work with others because there are so few doing similar work. Managers realise this and are planning ways to overcome this problem by, for example, observing teachers in mainstream. Some staff,

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Grade: 2

however, feel that there needs to be something between the annual cycle of reviews and day-to-day support - for example, more frequent mentoring sessions. Staff have been involved in drawing up a very appropriate programme of training. Clarity of thinking gives the service a vision of what is needed and clear direction in which to move. Strategic planning is good and has clear measurable objectives against which to test outcomes. The ‘team leader’ of the Mendip Tuition Group is exactly that, and has created a team of professionals who meet regularly and frequently to share ideas and find solutions; staff both within the centre and also in other locations work as a highly determined and close-knit team. This balance of clear planning guided by feedback from pupils and parents and empowered by a shared determination gives the Group high capacity for further improvement. Signs of this capacity are already

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Grade: 2

clear because data shows the success that current improvements and innovations have already made for example, the impact of the ‘virtual classroom’ on pupils’ progress and engagement. Key to the service’s success is the staff’s complete commitment to providing every pupil with equal access to ways to succeed. This leads managers to be highly innovative, to initiate close partnership with others and not to accept things that might otherwise hold them back, for example problems with transport. The service management committee includes key people within the partnership as a whole and this has created great clarity of thinking as to how people can and need to work together. They have yet to visit the Mendip Group, although this is planned for the near future. 5 Inspection Report: Mendip Tuition Group, 28 February 2006 to 28 February 2006 .

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set out in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s

website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 6 Inspection Report: Mendip Tuition Group, 28 February 2006 to 28 February 2006

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Overall

Key to judgements: grade 1 is outstanding, grade 2 good, grade 3 satisfactory, and grade 4 inadequate

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learners?

NA 2 How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners' well-being? NA NA The quality and standards in foundation stage NA 2 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation NA Yes The capacity to make any necessary improvements NA NA Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection

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Achievement and standards

NA 2 How well do learners achieve? NA 4 The standards 1 reached by learners

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Achievement and standards

NA 2 How well learners make progress, taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners NA 2 How well learners with learning difficulties and disabilities make progress

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learners?

NA 1 The extent of learners' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development NA 2 The behaviour of learners NA 2 The attendance of learners NA 1 How well learners enjoy their education NA 2 The extent to which learners adopt safe practices NA 2 The extent to which learners adopt healthy lifestyles NA 2 The extent to which learners make a positive contribution to the community NA 3 How well learners develop workplace and other skills that will contribute to their future economic well-being

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needs and interests of learners?

NA 2 How well are learners cared for, guided and supported?

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needs and interests of learners?

Grade 1 - Exceptionally and consistently high; Grade 2 - Generally above average with none significantly below average; Grade 3 - Broadly average; Grade 4 - Exceptionally low.

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and supporting all learners?

NA 2 How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading to improvement and promote high quality of care and education NA 2 How effectively performance is monitored, evaluated and improved to meet challenging targets, through quality assurance and self-review NA 1 How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination tackled so that all learners achieve as well as they can NA 2 How effectively and efficiently resources are deployed to achieve value for money NA 3 The extent to which governors and other supervisory boards discharge their responsibilities NA Yes The adequacy and suitability of staff to ensure that learners are protected

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The extent to which schools enable learners to be healthy

Yes Learners are encouraged and enabled to eat and drink healthily Yes Learners are encouraged and enabled to take regular exercise Yes Learners are discouraged from smoking and substance abuse Yes Learners are educated about sexual health

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The extent to which providers ensure that learners stay safe

Yes Procedures for safeguarding learners meet current government requirements Yes Risk assessment procedures and related staff training are in place Yes Action is taken to reduce anti-social behaviour, such as bullying and racism Yes Learners are taught about key risks and how to deal with them

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The extent to which learners make a positive contribution

Yes Learners are helped to develop stable, positive relationships Yes Learners, individually and collectively, participate in making decisions that affect them Yes Learners are encouraged to initiate, participate in and manage activities in school and the wider community

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The extent to which schools enable learners to achieve economic well-being

Yes There is provision to promote learners’ basic skills Yes Learners have opportunities to develop enterprise skills and work in teams Yes Careers education and guidance is provided to all learners in key stage 3 and 4 and the sixth form Yes Education for all learners aged 14–19 provides an understanding of employment and the economy

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

Thank you for making me so welcome in your lessons and during the time some of you spent talking with me. I enjoyed my day in the Mendip Tuition Group very much. You told me you felt happy and safe at the Centre, and that you felt you were learning a great deal because you are valued as individuals. Most of you said that you were much more confident about going on to Further Education and about getting good examination results. Parents of pupils who do not work in the centre were equally positive about the help their children receive. I think that the Mendip Tuition Group supports you well and you told me that you agree. You are making good progress because you are well taught and you are growing in self-confidence. You are rightly proud of your work. You learn interesting things and feel teachers understand and help with any problems you are trying to overcome. I felt the Unit was well led and managed

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

and that you are playing your part in making it a good place to be. To become even better, I suggested that your teachers: provide you with more advice and information on your future careers work even more closely with the schools you have come from and to which you may return. Thank you again for making my day in your Centre such a good one.

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