Greenside School

117690 Unique Reference Number HERTFORDSHIRE Local Authority 290897 Inspection number 18 °19 January 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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Shephall Green School address Special Type of school Stevenage Community special School category Hertfordshire SG2 9XS 2 °19 Age range of pupils 01438 315356 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 01438 748034 Fax number 112 Number on roll (school) 30 Number on roll (6th form) Mr C Colvin Chair The governing body Appropriate authority Mr D Victor Headteacher 26 November 2001 Date of previous school inspection

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Inspection number Inspection dates Age group 290897 18 °19 January 2007 2°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 two Additional Inspectors.

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Description of the school

This is a special school for pupils with severe and profound and multiple learning difficulties. There has been a rise in numbers since the last inspection, with a particular increase in the number of pupils with autistic spectrum disorders and complex difficulties. The number of pupils with moderate learning difficulties transferring into post-16 has also increased significantly.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: Greenside School, 18 °19 January 2007

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Grade: 2

This is a good school with outstanding features. It has made good improvement since the last inspection and is well placed to improve further. It provides good value for money. Throughout the school, pupils make outstanding progress in their personal development and achieve well in response to good teaching and exceptionally high quality care. Parents appreciate this a great deal and express a high level of satisfaction. As one parent put it 'My son has a real possibility of leading a semi-independent life because he is encouraged every step of the way to achieve in areas that will make a real difference to the quality of his life'. Children in the Foundation Stage and students at post-16 are well provided for and both progress well. Throughout the school, teachers manage pupils' behaviour extremely well so that pupils learn and grow in an environment that is calm and positive. Pupils with autistic spectrum disorders are managed very skilfully and the school responds with great

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Grade: 2

sensitivity to their personal needs. Improving the development of pupils' communication skills is a current whole school priority. Some staff make good use of signing and pictures to explain to pupils what is about to happen and to involve them in decision making. However, aids such as switches and symbols, as well as signing, are not used as frequently as they should be as a matter of course, especially for pupils with complex needs. There is variation in the quality of lesson planning. In the best lessons, teachers identify precisely what they want each pupil to achieve but some lessons are not planned sufficiently to match the needs of individual pupils. The previous inspection - and the one before that - judged the accommodation to be inadequate. An increase in numbers since then has put further pressure on the limited space available. The school is working with the local authority and the neighbouring

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Grade: 2

secondary school in an attempt to resolve this. In the meantime, staff do all they can to overcome restrictions imposed by the premises. Outstanding links with other educational establishments mean that pupils at Key Stage 4 go to the neighbouring secondary school for some subjects, and most students at post-16 attend courses in further education colleges for part of their time. However, lack of space places some restrictions on activities at post-16 and it particularly affects pupils at Key Stage 3. The school is constrained in the way it groups these pupils and has no specialist facilities, for instance, for science and design and technology. The school is led and managed well. The headteacher has a very clear vision for the school and is innovative and outward looking in his determination to meet each pupil's needs as fully as possible. He is supported exceptionally well by the deputy head, who has developed a package of computerised assessment materials of outstanding quality

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Grade: 2

that is beginning to raise pupils' achievement. Other staff, with key responsibilities, provide good support and the school is accurate in the evaluation of its own effectiveness. However, the monitoring of teaching and learning is not as rigorous as it should be in identifying and sharing best practice or remedying inconsistencies. Governors fulfil their responsibilities well. 2 Inspection Report: Greenside School, 18 °19 January 2007

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Grade: 2

The school provides well for students at post-16. Good teaching and a curriculum matched to their needs enable students to achieve well. Their personal development is outstanding and firms who provide work experience report that they have a 'can do' attitude. The inadequate accommodation makes it very difficult for students to come together as a group, however, and limited space in the post-16 block particularly affects those with mobility difficulties and complex needs. Post-16 provision is led well and gives good value for money.

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What the school should do to improve further

• Strengthen the monitoring of teaching and learning to ensure that teachers match work consistently to the needs of individual pupils and that they regularly use suitable aids and methods to support pupils' communication. • Make urgent representations to secure a solution to the school's ongoing accommodation difficulties.

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Grade for sixth form: 2

Although pupils achieve well, standards are well below the national average as a result of their learning difficulties and disabilities. They make good progress towards the challenging targets in their individual education plans and exceptionally good progress in developing independence skills. As they move through the school, pupils make good progress in gaining basic skills in literacy and numeracy, but the progress of pupils who need support in communicating varies from one class to another. When aids such as switches and symbols are not made available as a matter or course, individual pupils do not make as much progress as they should. Throughout the school, pupils with autistic spectrum disorders make good progress. Attractive artwork on display shows that pupils make very good progress in expressing their ideas in two and three dimensions. Pupils make outstanding progress in swimming: the vast majority learn

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Grade for sixth form: 2

how to swim during their time at the school and some extend their skills by going to the local adult pool. Pupils at Key Stage 4 make good progress in the ASDAN (Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network) Transition Challenge and those at post-16 build on this in the ASDAN 'Towards Independence' and Entry Level 'Life Skills' courses. 3 Inspection Report: Greenside School, 18 °19 January 2007

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Grade for sixth form: 1

Personal development and well-being are outstanding. Pupils enjoy learning and parents confirm that their children like coming to school. Attendance is good and behaviour is exceptionally good. Pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is outstanding. The wide range of educational visits including, for example, to a Buddhist Monastery where pupils had lunch with the monks, and the superb use of drama where pupils have enacted the story of 'Richard III' and 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', significantly enrich their personal awareness. High quality relationships and social harmony are evident throughout the school. Pupils display trust and respect for adults as well as utmost care and consideration for one another. Older pupils contribute to decisions about school improvement and a high number are actively pursuing the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award. Pupils learn how to stay healthy and safe: they take

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Grade for sixth form: 1

part in physical activities with real enthusiasm. Work-related learning helps them to develop life skills and to grow in maturity so that they are well prepared for the future.

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Grade for sixth form: 2

The quality of teaching and learning is good. Teachers manage pupils' behaviour exceptionally well, including that of pupils with autistic spectrum disorders. Teachers generally use their teaching assistants well and there is some high quality support, especially by individual assistants who work with pupils with autistic spectrum disorders. The way teaching meets the needs of pupils with complex learning difficulties, including those with profound and multiple learning difficulties, ranges from outstanding to satisfactory. Lesson planning is at its best in swimming, where very precise learning objectives are identified for each pupil, together with an explanation of how each target will be achieved. Most teachers plan their lessons well and the assessment package developed within the school means that they all have a great deal of information from which to identify the next steps in pupils' learning. However, some

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Grade for sixth form: 2

teaching remains only satisfactory, particularly where teachers do not identify what individual pupils are meant to gain from particular activities.

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Grade for sixth form: 2

The curriculum is good: the strong emphasis on physical activity and the development of independence skills is highly relevant to pupils' needs. Personal, social, and health 4 Inspection Report: Greenside School, 18 °19 January 2007 education (PSHE) permeates the life of the school, with a clear emphasis on enjoyment of learning and the building of pupils' self-esteem at its heart. Information and communication technology is used well throughout the school to support pupils' learning. The school has developed outstanding links with many other educational establishments. These enable pupils to learn alongside their mainstream peers in PSHE and sport, as well as going some way to overcoming restrictions imposed by inadequacies in the school's accommodation. In addition to the time they spend at college, close partnership between the school and Connexions staff provides students with good work experience placements. For pupils of all ages, learning is enriched by

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Grade for sixth form: 2

an outstanding range of educational visits and visitors to the school.

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Grade for sixth form: 1

Outstanding care, guidance and support underpin pupils' good achievement and outstanding personal development. All the staff ensure pupils learn and grow in a safe and supportive environment, and robust arrangements are in place for protecting and safeguarding them. The school works in close collaboration with health professionals, therapists and other outside agencies in meeting pupils' care and personal needs. Its highly flexible approach to meeting the needs of those with the most challenging behavioural difficulties is exceptionally effective. Partnership with parents is strong and they are kept fully involved in decisions about their children's education and development. The school has a good understanding of how well pupils are doing and individual education plans include clear, achievable targets which are shared regularly with parents and made available to pupils in a pictorial format in many classes.

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Grade for sixth form: 2

Leadership is good. Senior leaders are highly committed to meeting pupils' individual needs and the flexible way the school works around pupils' behavioural difficulties shows how much this vision is shared by all the staff. Self-evaluation is accurate and senior managers have begun to analyse data to assist them in judging the school's performance. Links with mainstream schools have been used to good effect in improving the quality of teaching. Staff have good opportunities to undertake professional development. As part of their monitoring, managers at all levels undertake lesson observations and the school has made extensive use of external consultants. However, the drive to improve the quality of teaching and learning from within the school is not as rigorous as it could be. As a result, inconsistencies from one teacher to another are not systematically identified and resolved, and the school does not make as much use as it could of the skills of the best teachers in sharing their

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Grade for sixth form: 2

good practice. 5 Inspection Report: Greenside School, 18 °19 January 2007 Governors make a good contribution to the school. They have an accurate understanding of its work, collect information for themselves and ask perceptive and relevant questions to assist them in decision making. 6 Inspection Report: Greenside School, 18 °19 January 2007 .

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Grade for sixth form: 2

set out in the guidance 'Complaints about school inspection', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk. 7 Inspection Report: Greenside School, 18 °19 January 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

2 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? NA 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

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

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Achievement and standards

2 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 1 The behaviour of learners 2 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. 8 Inspection Report: Greenside School, 18 °19 January 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? 9 Inspection Report: Greenside School, 18 °19 January 2007

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

20 January 2007 Dear Pupils Greenside School, Shephall Green, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, SG2 9XS Thank you for making us feel so welcome when we visited your school. We enjoyed our visit very much. Now, I am writing to let you know what we found out about the school. This is a good school that is outstanding in the way it cares for you and helps you to become as independent as possible. We were pleased to see how much you enjoy school and how you grow in confidence during your time there. You are making really good progress in your personal development, and good teaching helps you to make good progress with your work. Although there are still problems with the school buildings and there is not much space, especially for the eldest students, the school has extremely good links with other schools and it uses these to provide you with extra opportunities. It is good that some of you are able to work with pupils

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

from mainstream schools as you get older and at post-16 to spend some of your time at college. The headteacher and senior managers lead and manage the school well. They want to make the school even better for you and we have asked them to do this by checking even more carefully to make sure you learn as much as you could in all your lessons. You can help them by trying really hard in your lessons and continuing to be really kind to one another. Yours sincerely M J Goodchild Lead inspector 10 Inspection Report: Greenside School, 18 °19 January 2007

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