Foreland Fields School

119041 Unique Reference Number Kent Local Authority 291297 Inspection number 13 March 2007 Inspection date Sarah Mascall 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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Lanthorne Road School address Special Type of school Broadstairs Community special School category CT10 3NX 2 °19 Age range of pupils 01843 863891 Telephone number Mixed Gender of pupils 01843 860710 Fax number 109 Number on roll (school) 22 Number on roll (6th form) Roy Raven Chair The governing body Appropriate authority Pam Ashworth Headteacher 21 July 2005 Date of previous school inspection

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Inspection number Inspection date Age group 291297 13 March 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

The majority of pupils attending Foreland School have severe learning difficulties. Of the others, just over a quarter have autistic spectrum disorders and a fifth have profound and multiple learning difficulties. Nearly 10 per cent of pupils are in local authority care. All pupils of reception age through to Year13 have statements of special needs. Those in the nursery are in the process of being assessed. Pupils come from a wide catchment area and have varied socio-economic backgrounds. English is a second language for a very small number of pupils. The school has a base in a primary school and one in a secondary school which enables pupils to experience education in a mainstream setting. There is a Post-16 unit on the school site which is referred to as Saxon House. The school was last inspected in 2005.

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Key for inspection grades

Outstanding Grade 1 Good Grade 2 Satisfactory Grade 3 Inadequate Grade 4 1 Inspection Report: The Foreland School, 13 March 2007

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Grade: 2

The Foreland school is a good school. Effective leadership and management have enabled the school to make tremendous strides over the last two years. The senior leadership team are committed to improvement and through their drive and enthusiasm the school has developed and improved at a rapid pace. A major strength is the links that it has developed with other schools and agencies to support pupils in their learning and personal development. Great importance is placed on enabling pupils to experience life in mainstream settings and colleges. This supports pupils' good personal development, as do the effective procedures for care, guidance and support. A priority for the school has been to promote pupils' awareness of keeping safe and healthy living. As a result, pupils show excellent awareness of the need to avoid foods such as chocolate and make healthy choices at the tuck shop. They behave extremely well

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Grade: 2

and are very clear about safe practices, for example, telling visitors off if they do not use the zebra crossing. However, opportunities for pupils to have a voice in the school are limited. Despite standards that are exceptionally low because of their special needs, pupils' achievements are good overall. Children in the Foundation Stage get off to a good start and this is built upon well in Years 1 to 6. Achievement is also good for pupils in Years 10 and 11 and in Post-16. However, for pupils in Years 7 to 9, achievements are satisfactory rather than good. Although the curriculum is good overall, shortcomings in the way the school day is organised have an adverse affect in Years 7 to 9 because pupils do not have enough time to develop their skills in literacy and numeracy as well as they could. Good teamwork between teachers and their teaching assistants ensures that teaching is effective and enables the different abilities within each class to make

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Grade: 2

progress against the targets they are set. The accommodation has a number of limitations, particularly in the lack of storage space and small classes, but the school has made use of every bit of space to ensure that it meets the needs of pupils. Leadership and management are good. The senior management team and subject leaders are making increasingly good use of the information on pupils' achievements to track the progress they make. This has enabled the school to recognise weaknesses in the progress made by pupils in subjects and to act quickly to bring about improvements. The school has started to look at the progress of the different groups of pupils but this is not yet rigorous enough to routinely identify any differences in achievement and so enable it to consistently take effective action. Nevertheless, it has a realistic understanding of its strengths and weaknesses and knows what it needs to do to develop further. As a result of this and its record of improvement, it has good

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Grade: 2

Pupils make good progress in Post-16. Good leadership and management have ensured that the curriculum is well planned and enables pupils to have a range of experiences 2 Inspection Report: The Foreland School, 13 March 2007 that support their learning well. This is reflected in the fact that their successes are recognised through a good range of accreditation in courses offered by the school. Pupils benefit from good teaching that is well planned and organised to meet the different abilities of the groups. At times, though, staff miss opportunities to extend pupils' skills in literacy, numeracy and communication. For example, when preparing lunch they are not always encouraged to weigh ingredients or to read instructions. A strength within the Post-16 provision is the opportunity to learn about the world of work. As a result, pupils develop good independence skills that prepare them well for the next stage of their education. However, opportunities are missed to provide

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Grade: 2

accreditation for the college courses they attend in order to celebrate their achievements.

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What the school should do to improve further

• Make better use of the school day to ensure that pupils in Years 7 to 9 have sufficient opportunities to develop their basic skills. • Develop more effective systems in identifying trends in the progress of different groups of pupils so that the school can ensure that all pupils make at least good progress. • Provide more opportunities for pupils to have a say in what goes on in school.

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Grade for sixth form: 2

Because of the nature of their special needs, pupils' standards, in comparison with those nationally, are exceptionally low. Their achievements, though, are good. Children make good progress in the nursery. They benefit from a good range of experiences that prepare them well for the next stage of their education. This good progress is maintained and, by Year 6, pupils have achieved well. Progress slows, though, in Years 7 to 9 because insufficient time is allocated to enabling pupils to develop their skills sufficiently well in literacy and numeracy. In Years 10 and 11, pupils' achievements pick up again and they make good progress. They achieve well in a range of accreditation, although their skills in ICT are satisfactory rather than good because not enough time is given to developing these skills. All pupils, regardless of their ability, make good progress against the individual targets they are set. The school, however, sets itself very challenging targets against which it

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Grade for sixth form: 2

makes satisfactory rather than good progress. It is in the process of reviewing these to enable it to have a more realistic set of goals. 3 Inspection Report: The Foreland School, 13 March 2007

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Grade for sixth form: 2

Pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good and pupils are well prepared to meet the challenges they will encounter as they grow older, for example, through experience of mainstream and college settings. Pupils like school and enjoy the work they do; as one pupil said, 'It's a good school ° we do fun things.' They respond well to the calm atmosphere and positive ethos in the school. This is reflected in their excellent behaviour and awareness of keeping safe. They love all the responsibilities they are given and carry these out very sensibly. Pupils respond to staff and interact with them well. Many develop positive relations with each other and play and chat happily at playtimes. They enjoy all the opportunities to stay healthy and make the most of lunch and break times to ride bikes, run around and use the play equipment. Attendance, although satisfactory, is affected by pupils' absence for

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Grade for sixth form: 2

medical reasons. Pupils contribute well to the community and raise money for charity. However, whilst more-able pupils are involved with the school councils in their mainstream settings, there are very limited opportunities for them to have a say in how their own school is run and so contribute to the school community.

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Grade for sixth form: 2

A strength of teaching is the detailed planning that outlines how the needs of pupils in each class are to be met. This together with the very good teamwork with teaching assistants ensures pupils achieve well. For example, in an excellent lesson, teaching assistants were used extremely well to record pupils' enthusiastic responses to keeping safe in the kitchen. Tasks are well matched to pupils' learning needs and because staff know their pupils well they can judge when a pupil needs to move on to another task and extend their skills further. A sensitive approach to pupils means that tasks are adapted to enable all pupils, no matter what their disabilities or difficulties are, to be involved. On occasions the pace of lessons is slow. For example, in a numeracy lesson pupils had to wait whilst each pupil looked at each vegetable as it was passed around the class.

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Grade for sixth form: 2

The school provides a good range of experiences for most pupils that extend their learning well. Planning for the children in the Nursery is very good and well focused 4 Inspection Report: The Foreland School, 13 March 2007 on the different early learning experiences recommended for children of this age. A number of recent changes to the structure of classes have enabled the school to look more closely at what it provides. Classes are now broadly in ability groups. Although it is too early to be sure of the impact on pupils' learning, it has already had a positive impact in enabling teaching to be more focused on the needs of individuals. The organisation of the school day, with long lunch hours, has a particular impact in Years 7 to 9 where there is insufficient time for pupils to develop their literacy and numeracy skills as well as they could. The curriculum for Years 10 to 11 is well planned and pupils

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Grade for sixth form: 2

effectively build on their skills and make good progress overall. The range of accreditation is good for pupils in Years 10 and 11 and Post-16. There is a good range of trips and residential activities that support pupils' learning and personal development.

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Grade for sixth form: 2

The care and welfare of pupils are given a high priority. There are very good procedures for child protection and the vetting of school staff. Staff have an excellent knowledge of pupils' needs and this together with the outstanding partnerships with outside agencies ensures pupils are very well supported and cared for. Many parents are very positive about the support they and their children receive from the school and it is clearly greatly valued. However, a small number feel that they are not sufficiently involved in supporting their child's learning because communication with teachers through the use of home-school books is not always effective. The school is gradually improving pupils' involvement in their learning and is rightly pleased with the involvement of both parents and pupils in setting targets at the annual reviews. The school has worked extremely hard to address certain safety issues that it had

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Grade for sixth form: 2

identified concerning the arrival and departure of pupils. It has been very successful in the mornings but is looking to further improve the manner in which pupils leave school, through greater involvement of support staff.

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Grade for sixth form: 2

It is very evident that this is a school that is committed to ensuring that pupils make the best possible progress. The headteacher, supported by her senior management team, provides good leadership and staff are constantly looking at ways they can improve. There have been overall improvements in both pupils' academic achievement and in their personal development since the last inspection. There is very good teamwork and through this the school has put in place a number of procedures that are beginning to have a positive impact on pupils' learning. This is evident in the recent work on involving all staff, particularly subject leaders, in using information on pupils' achievements in subjects to identify what needs to be improved. Good work to improve 5 Inspection Report: The Foreland School, 13 March 2007 achievement in science, for example, is already having a positive impact. The school has recognised that it needs to look more closely at the achievements of pupils with

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Grade for sixth form: 2

different special needs in order to ensure that all are making good progress in their learning. The school's good understanding of its strengths and weaknesses is evident in the very detailed improvement planning. Governance is satisfactory overall. In many ways, governors provide a good level of support but they recognise that there is more they can do to fulfil their role. They are, for example, keen to be more involved in improvement planning and recognise that parents and pupils need to have a clearer understanding of what needs to be done to secure further improvement. Governors have been particularly active in trying to improve accommodation and look at alternative ways of enabling the school to expand further. 6 Inspection Report: The Foreland School, 13 March 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: The Foreland School, 13 March 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 3 The attendance of learners 2 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?

2 2 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: The Foreland School, 13 March 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: The Foreland School, 13 March 2007

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

Thank you very much for making us feel so welcome in your school. We very much enjoyed meeting you and finding out about your school. We feel your school is a good school. These are the things we liked best: • Your headteacher and senior staff have all worked hard to make things better for you. • You make good progress in your work and learn a lot of new skills. • Teaching is good and teachers know you well and, together with the teaching assistants, help you learn as much as possible. • You have a very good understanding of staying healthy and keeping safe. • You have good opportunities to go to mainstream schools. • You are very well cared for because the school works closely with lots of different people to help you. • Older pupils have good opportunities to experience going to work and college. These are the things we have asked your school to do to make sure you all do as well as you can: • Make better use of the time during the day so that pupils in Years 7 to 9 make as good

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Text from letter to pupils explaining the findings of the inspection

progress as everyone else. • Use the information it has on your achievements to make sure it knows whether all of you make at least good progress. • Give you more opportunities to have a say and be involved in how your school is run. 10 Inspection Report: The Foreland School, 13 March 2007

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