Kingsley High School

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About Kingsley High School


Name Kingsley High School
Website http://www.kingsley.harrow.sch.uk
Inspections
Ofsted Inspections
Headteacher Mr Lee Helyer
Address Whittlesea Road, Harrow, HA3 6ND
Phone Number 02084213676
Phase Special
Type Community special school
Age Range 11-19
Religious Character Does not apply
Gender Mixed
Number of Pupils 121
Local Authority Harrow
Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Kingsley High School

Following my visit to the school on 13 November 2018 with Barney Geen, Ofsted Inspector, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to report the inspection findings.

The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be outstanding in May 2014. This school continues to be outstanding. The leadership team has maintained the outstanding quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

You and your senior leadership team have ensured that the school has continued to move forward, and you have successfully updated your practice to keep pace with the changing needs of your... pupils. Governors have also been proactive since the last inspection, checking that they have the right skills across the board to support the school. They continue to give you and your team the right balance of challenge and support.

Your team has a strong sense of purpose and you are unified in your vision that 'every experience is a learning opportunity'. Staff are motivated and committed to the school vision, and they work hard to ensure that pupils have a positive experience each day. All pupils at the school have highly complex learning needs.

Exceptional levels of support from adults mean that pupils make significant progress over their time. Throughout the school, and particularly in the sixth form, there is a strong emphasis on preparing pupils for adult life. Independence is woven through the curriculum and you make sure that pupils have opportunities to practise skills that they will need in the future.

Pupils have excellent opportunities to learn about the similarities and differences between different groups in society, and you support them in gaining an understanding of British values. You and your team know the school very well. You have a clear and accurate understanding of what the school does particularly well and you take effective action when an area of your practice needs improving.

For example, since the last inspection you have focused on sharpening the targets that you set for pupils, and this is now a strength. Pupils are very positive about their school. They really like the special events that the school organises, such as the international weeks, animal workshops and sports days.

The 'Kingsley shows' are very popular and these events clearly create lasting memories for pupils and give them opportunities to widen their experiences. Safeguarding is effective. The leadership team has ensured that safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose.

Staff fully understand how the pupils might be more vulnerable to harm because of their complex needs. The school curriculum plays an important part in ensuring that pupils learn how to keep safe. For example, it does this by helping pupils to understand how to behave in different social settings.

Pupils are prepared well for adult life, including how to keep themselves safe online and in the community. Leaders, including governors, have a rigorous oversight of safeguarding arrangements and regularly review practice. They ensure that all staff are provided with regular training.

Staff have a very high degree of vigilance and know how to report concerns. The school maintains careful records of any concerns and refers cases to external agencies where necessary. Leaders have ensured that all staff are suitable to work in the school, and governors check that all pre-employment checks are carried out.

The school ensures that the well-being of pupils is a top priority. For example, you have worked closely with health service partners to ensure that vulnerable pupils feel safe if they are admitted to the local hospital. Staff help parents and carers to keep their children safe through individual support or in groups.

For example, by training parents in safe moving and handling techniques for pupils with complex physical and sensory difficulties. Inspection findings ? The first line of enquiry for this inspection focused on the extent to which the curriculum prepares pupils for when they leave school. ? You have continued to develop your curriculum since the last inspection in order to ensure that it meets the needs of all of your pupils.

You involved staff in these changes and carefully considered what you wanted to prioritise. As a result of your expert action, you have a flexible and dynamic curriculum that links subjects together and gives pupils opportunities to practise key skills as well as acquire knowledge. Staff use their expertise and creativity to adapt lessons to suit the range of different ways that your pupils learn, and they make very careful observations of the progress that pupils are making.

• Staff work well in teams across the school to plan interesting and engaging lessons. Leaders are systematic in checking the targets that teachers set for pupils, to make sure that they are challenging, sharply focused and reflect the outcomes in pupils' education, health and care plans. ? Your teams use a range of specialist approaches to support the curriculum, including communication strategies, visual support and structured interventions for some pupils with a diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD).

These approaches are monitored expertly by teachers and leaders to make sure that they have a positive impact on the progress that pupils make. You identified that the teaching of mathematics for pupils with ASD was not as strong as it could be and you have taken swift and effective action to remedy this. ? Leaders at all levels have ensured that the curriculum prepares pupils for adult life.

For example, there are opportunities for pupils to practise independent living skills, such as dressing, and to develop their social skills in community settings. Parents are kept very well informed about the curriculum by the information on your website and by additional information that you send home regularly. ? Next, we agreed to look at how well the school's management of pupils' behaviour strengthens their learning.

This is because you feel that this is a strength of the school. ? You identified that for many of your pupils behaviour was having a negative impact on their learning and progress. In response, you have taken effective action to train and support your staff to manage behaviour more effectively.

The management of behaviour is now very much the responsibility of staff at all levels, and behavioural incidents have fallen dramatically. ? All staff use strategies to help pupils manage their emotions better, and this is having a very positive effect on the overall climate for learning for all pupils at the school. You recognise the support that staff need to manage difficult situations.

You make sure that staff receive appropriate support to manage their own feelings about challenging behaviour through a support network and a well-being group. Senior leaders use data on behavioural incidents expertly to analyse patterns. This information is used very well by the school to review and change systems where necessary.

• My final line of enquiry focused on how well school leaders collect and use assessment information to check that pupils make the best possible progress. ? School leaders have introduced new systems for checking pupils' progress, which celebrate the achievements of a wider range of pupils. These systems also recognise the small steps of progress that pupils with the most complex needs make.

As a result of leaders' actions, the school now has much more detailed evidence that all pupils are making the best possible progress over their time at the school. ? You have developed your strong policy and practice in collaboration with other local and regional special schools. You have also worked closely with the school that most of your pupils attend for their primary education.

This has led to even better transition arrangements and a clearer picture of the progress that pupils are making. You have excellent internal systems for staff teams, middle and senior leaders to check teachers' assessments on a regular basis. You also make very good use of your collaborative networks to check that your judgements are secure.

• School leaders and governors have identified that their strong assessment systems would be even better if progress information identified next steps for learning more clearly, and you have already begun work on this. Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? the new systems for checking pupils' progress are refined so that next steps for teaching and learning are even clearer. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Harrow.

This letter will be published on the Ofsted website. Yours sincerely Gary Pocock Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection Together with senior leaders, inspectors visited classes across the school to observe pupils' learning. We talked to a wide range of pupils and staff and, together with leaders, looked at pupils' work and other evidence to evaluate pupils' progress over time.

Inspectors held several meetings with you and your senior leadership team to review the school's evaluation of its effectiveness. We met with parents, the chair of governors and another parent governor. My colleague had a telephone conversation with your school improvement partner and a clinical nurse specialist who works at the school.

We considered a range of documentation, including the school's plans for improvement, safeguarding records, pupils' progress information and behaviour and attendance information. We considered responses to the staff survey. There were no responses to Ofsted's survey for pupils, and too few responses to Ofsted's parents' survey, Parent View, to be considered.


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