Waverley School

102070 Unique Reference Number Enfield Local Authority 286266 Inspection number 6 °7 February 2007 Inspection dates Margaret Goodchild Reporting inspector

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

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105 The Ride School address Special Type of school Enfield Community special School category EN3 7DL 3 °19 Age range of pupils 020 8805 1858 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 020 8805 4397 Fax number 108 Number on roll (school) 27 Number on roll (6th form) Mrs Wendy Berry Chair The governing body Appropriate authority Mrs Louise Gibbs Headteacher 17 September 2001 Date of previous school inspection

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Inspection number Inspection dates Age group 286266 6 °7 February 2007 3°19 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 an Additional Inspector

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Description of the school

This is a special school for pupils with severe, profound and multiple learning difficulties. The school's intake is ethnically diverse, with Turkish being the largest minority ethnic group. A high percentage of pupils are eligible for free school meals and since the last inspection, the medical needs of pupils have increased in number and severity. A high proportion of the pupils have profound and multiple learning difficulties.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: Waverley School, 6 °7 February 2007

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Grade: 2

This is a good school with outstanding features. Nearly all parents express a high level of satisfaction with its work and appreciate 'the wealth of different experiences' that ensure their children are 'positively stimulated in a lovely, caring environment'. Achievement is good but due to pupils' learning difficulties and disabilities, standards - as measured for all pupils of equivalent age - are well below average. Children in the Foundation Stage make good progress and students at post-16 do exceptionally well. Throughout the school, pupils make good progress towards the challenging targets in their individual education plans. High quality care, guidance and support underpin pupils' outstanding personal development. Staff work closely with a range of therapists. Regular meetings between members of the various agencies involved with each pupil and their family are held to discuss how best to meet their needs.

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Grade: 2

The curriculum is matched closely to pupils' academic and personal needs and teaching is good. Since the last inspection, the school has trained several new staff, including a number who joined the school having only just qualified as teachers. The very good training and support that teachers receive means that there is a significant amount of good teaching and some that is outstanding. There is, however, some teaching that is only satisfactory. There are inconsistencies in the way that teachers plan their lessons and they are not all confident in organising the work of their teaching assistants to best effect. The school is led and managed well. Senior managers provide outstanding leadership and direction for the school. Their high expectations are evident, for instance, in the range of learning opportunities provided. Future development is planned in detail and good systems are in place for evaluating the school's effectiveness. Senior managers

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Grade: 2

are accurate in the way they judge the school's performance and have a clear understanding of its main strengths and weaknesses. As a result, improvement since the last inspection has been good and the school is well placed to improve further. Other staff with management responsibilities fulfil their roles well but they do not all have the necessary skills or experience to contribute fully to improving the quality of teaching.

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Grade: 1

Students make outstanding progress at post-16. They benefit especially from outstanding opportunities to work alongside mainstream students at local colleges as well as developing important skills through the 'Equals Moving On' course. Opportunities to take part in work experience and to get out into the community also support their achievement. As a result of good teaching, they build on their basic skills in literacy and numeracy and grow in confidence and self-esteem, becoming increasingly independent. Care, guidance and personal development are outstanding, and the post-16 department is led and managed very effectively. 2 Inspection Report: Waverley School, 6 °7 February 2007

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What the school should do to improve further

• Improve teaching by ensuring that teachers identify what they intend each pupil or group of pupils to learn within individual lessons and, where necessary, by strengthening the way teachers use their teaching assistants. • Provide training in lesson observation, where necessary, so that all staff with management and co-ordination responsibilities contribute fully to self-evaluation and to raising pupils' achievement.

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Grade for sixth form: 1

Although there is some variation in the progress pupils make from one class to another, their achievement is good overall with outstanding achievement in some areas. Throughout the school, pupils make good progress in developing their communication skills, in their physical development and in personal, social and health education. As they move through the school, more able pupils record their ideas using symbols, learn to recognise words and to identify different coins. Pupils with profound and multiple learning difficulties achieve well as a result of the close work that takes place between teachers and therapists to maximise their movement and communication. Pupils of Turkish heritage make outstanding progress as a result of the focused support they receive. Very high quality art and design work displayed throughout the school shows that pupils make outstanding progress in exploring materials and expressing their

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Grade for sixth form: 1

ideas, for instance, in designing Christmas cards and producing experimental textiles.

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Grade for sixth form: 1

Pupils' personal development and well being are outstanding. Pupils respond with enthusiasm to what the school has to offer and parents confirm that their children like coming to school. Behaviour is good. Satisfactory attendance reflects absence that is often related to pupils' medical conditions. Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is outstanding, and pupils grow in confidence as they move through the school. They have trusting relationships with the adults who work with them, and show care and consideration for one another. From an early age, they are encouraged to take responsibility and show initiative and this helps to increase their self-esteem. Pupils participate in fundraising for various charities and groups of pupils have contributed their ideas to school improvement. The opportunity to eat healthily at break and lunchtimes means that pupils have a growing awareness about how to stay

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Grade for sixth form: 1

healthy and many of the older pupils know the importance of hygiene. Regular opportunities to take part in physical activities, supplemented where necessary by physiotherapy and occupational therapy, also contribute to pupils becoming as healthy 3 Inspection Report: Waverley School, 6 °7 February 2007 as possible. Pupils make good progress in basic skills and the emphasis on developing independence prepared them well for life after school.

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Grade for sixth form: 2

Teachers make learning interesting by using a wide range of resources. They keep pupils' attention by using interactive whiteboards and providing plenty of opportunity for pupils to learn through direct experience. They emphasise communication and where appropriate make use of objects, pictures and switches to involve pupils as active learners who are given the opportunity to make choices. Behaviour is generally managed well. Throughout the school, teaching is outstanding in art and design. Pupils are given the opportunity to work with a wide range of materials and processes, including felt-making, tie and dye and batik. Throughout the school, medium-term planning is very detailed and teachers make use of the specific targets in pupils' individual education plans to identify the next steps in their learning. They keep detailed records of pupils' attainment and regularly evaluate the progress they have made in their lessons. Where teaching is at its best, work is

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Grade for sixth form: 2

carefully matched to the learning needs of groups and individuals within the class. However, there are variations in practice in the way teachers plan their lessons. As a result, where teaching is only satisfactory, teaching is less focused than it should be and it is not always clear what groups and individuals are meant to gain from a particular activity. In these lessons, teachers are also less effective in directing the work of teaching assistants and in managing difficult behaviour.

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Grade for sixth form: 1

The curriculum is matched exceptionally well to the needs of the pupils through the emphasis given to personal, social and health education, physical development and life skills. Pupils have outstanding opportunities to integrate individually or in groups into mainstream schools and to work alongside mainstream students who spend time at Waverley. These experiences are extremely well planned and do a great deal to promote pupils' communication and social skills. Students at post-16 have opportunities to attend local colleges, take part in mini-enterprise and a number take up extended work experience placements in the community. Pupils' achievement and personal development are enhanced a great deal through educational visits, through the wide range of specialists such as musicians and dancers who visit the school and involvement in activities such as the Shakespeare Schools Festival. 4 Inspection Report: Waverley School, 6 °7 February 2007

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Grade for sixth form: 1

The school works in very close collaboration with health professionals and other outside agencies. All the staff ensure that pupils learn and grow in a safe and supportive environment. Arrangements when pupils join and leave the school are exceptionally good and careers education is comprehensive. Parents are kept fully involved in decisions about their children's education and development. Workshops are provided for parents and a dietician works with them to provide information about healthy eating. The school has effective systems for checking how well pupils are doing and individual education plans include clear, achievable targets. Thorough individual behaviour plans indicate exactly how challenging behaviour is to be managed so that it has a minimal impact on learning.

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Grade for sixth form: 1

Leadership and management are good. The school has made good improvement since the last inspection, especially in the way it matches the curriculum to the differing needs of its pupils. Very effective systems are in place for training staff, including those new to working with pupils with learning difficulties and disabilities, and the school is active in providing outreach to mainstream and special schools. Links with mainstream schools have been used to exceptionally good effect to extend the opportunities open to pupils. Senior managers have responded creatively to the increasing number of pupils with profound and multiple learning difficulties by reorganising the way responsibilities are delegated so that they better reflect the particular needs of the pupils. Staff with management responsibilities, for instance for autistic spectrum disorders and intensive interaction1, provide valuable advice, support and training to their colleagues and

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Grade for sixth form: 1

increasingly contribute to monitoring the school's effectiveness. However, some staff with management responsibilities have not yet received formal training in lesson observation and the school has quite recently reorganised its system for co-ordinating subjects. Governance has improved since the last inspection. Governors make a good contribution to the school. They have an accurate understanding of its work because they collect information for themselves and increasingly ask questions to assist them in decision making. 5 Inspection Report: Waverley School, 6 °7 February 2007 .

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Grade for sixth form: 1

set out in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 6 Inspection Report: Waverley School, 6 °7 February 2007

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Inspection judgements

16-19 School Overall Key to judgements: grade 1 is outstanding, grade 2 good, grade 3 satisfactory, and grade 4 inadequate

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Overall effectiveness

1 2 How effective, efficient and inclusive is the provision of education, integrated care and any extended services in meeting the needs of learners? 1 1 How well does the school work in partnership with others to promote learners' well-being? 2 The quality and standards in the Foundation Stage 2 2 The effectiveness of the school's self-evaluation 2 2 The capacity to make any necessary improvements Yes Yes Effective steps have been taken to promote improvement since the last inspection

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Achievement and standards

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

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Achievement and standards

1 2 How well learners make progress, taking account of any significant variations between groups of learners How well learners with learning difficulties and disabilities make progress

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well-being of the learners?

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

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range of needs and interests of learners?

1 1 How well are learners cared for, guided and supported?

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range of 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 to below average; Grade 4 - Exceptionally low. 7 Inspection Report: Waverley School, 6 °7 February 2007

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achievement and supporting all learners?

How effectively leaders and managers at all levels set clear direction leading to improvement and promote high quality of care and education How effectively performance is monitored, evaluated and improved to meet challenging targets How well equality of opportunity is promoted and discrimination tackled so that all learners achieve as well as they can How effectively and efficiently resources, including staff, are deployed to achieve value for money The extent to which governors and other supervisory boards discharge their responsibilities Yes Yes Do procedures for safeguarding learners meet current government requirements? No Does this school require special measures? No Does this school require a notice to improve? 8 Inspection Report: Waverley School, 6 °7 February 2007

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

Thank you for making me feel welcome when I visited your school. It was interesting to see all the interesting things you do and especially to see all your beautiful artwork. I am writing now to let you know what I found out about the school. This is a good school and some of its work is outstanding. The teachers and teaching assistants care for you extremely well and they work closely with therapists and people from other agencies to find the best ways of helping you. You do really well in developing independence and gain in confidence and make good progress with your work. The school provides a lot of opportunities for you to take part in exciting activities and I could see that you enjoy learning. Waverley School has extremely good links with other schools and those of you who attend mainstream school or go to college make particularly good progress. The headteacher and senior managers lead and manage the school well. I have asked them to

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

make the school even better for you by making sure everyone in the school works together to make lessons as good as they could possibly be. Keep trying hard and enjoying all the interesting activities. Yours sincerely M J GoodchildLead Inspector 9 Inspection Report: Waverley School, 6 °7 February 2007

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