Amwell View School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is an outstanding school. Outstanding leadership and management have led to outstanding achievement and teaching across the school. The inspirational headteacher, with excellent support from school leaders and good support from governors, is highly effective in driving school improvement.

Leaders have already revised their curriculum and have almost completed the development of their own systems of assessments. These are on course to be implemented in the spring term 2015. Leaders promote pupils' spiritual, moral social and cultural development exceptionally well.

Pupils' behaviour is outstanding. They have excellent attitudes to learning and participate ...fully in all school activities. The school's efforts to ensure that pupils are safe are outstanding.

Outstanding teaching has a very strong impact on pupils' learning and their progress over time. Teachers make excellent use of signing, visual timetables, symbols and extremely well-chosen resources to ensure that pupils with different learning needs are absorbed in their activities. Teachers and teaching assistants have high expectations for learning.

They work well together to support the learning of individual and small groups of pupils in lessons. They create a very positive atmosphere for learning, manage pupils' behaviour exceptionally well and have excellent relationships with pupils. Pupils' achievement is outstanding.

Across the school, pupils make at least good and often better progress across a range of subjects. They make outstanding progress in communication, personal, social and health education, reading, number, music, art and physical education. The oldest pupils are exceptionally well prepared for the next stage of their education, with 100% transferring successfully to the sixth form.

Outstanding teaching with excellent planning in the Early Years enables children to make very rapid progress and settle into their routines extremely smoothly. Outstanding leadership of the sixth form has led to outstanding learning and progress of students as a result of excellent provision. Students are extremely well prepared for their lives beyond school.

Information about this school

Amwell View School and Specialist Sports College provides for pupils with severe learning difficulties. Some have additional needs, such as multi-sensory impairments. All pupils have a statement of special educational needs.

Just over half of all pupils have autism, which is a significant increase since the last inspection, and approximately one fifth have profound and multiple learning difficulties. Most pupils are White British and none are at an early stage of learning English as an additional language. The proportion of pupils for whom the school receives pupil premium funding is above average.

This is additional funding for pupils entitled to free school meals, who are looked after by the local authority or from where one member of their family is serving in the armed forces. No pupils attend alternative provision for part of their education. Since the last inspection the school has increased its roll and taken in pupils with more complex needs.

A second deputy headteacher was appointed in October 2013 and a new middle leadership team has been created. The school has developed strong links and partnerships in the Eastern Region Special Olympics movement and Amwell View is the lead school in the training of teachers through School Direct. A sensory studio was built in 2013 and outside exercise areas improved.