Chelsea Community Hospital School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is an outstanding school Leaders and managers are extremely effective at putting into practice their belief that every child has a right to education while in hospital.

The governing body works very effectively with them to achieve this. Staff are very loyal to the school and are unanimous in their support of achieving this aim. Leaders set high standards.

They have very high expectations of pupils' learning and of their capacity to fulfil their potential. Teaching is outstanding. Skilled and knowledgeable staff enable very effective learning to take place, while remaining sensitive to pupils' conditions.

Pupils make excellent progress in their l...earning. Their achievements are outstanding, especially given the barriers that they have to overcome. Pupils who are at the early stages of reading and writing do extremely well as a result of very high quality literacy teaching.

The school is safe and welcoming. Pupils are cared for exceptionally well. Pupils' behaviour and attitudes are exemplary.

They are interested and work enthusiastically, showing great concentration and endeavour. Excellent provision for post-16 students enables this group to learn and become more resilient extremely well. The school returns pupils to a mainstream or special school so successfully because it gives them the personal skills, confidence and academic achievements that they require.

Pupils are prepared exceptionally well for living in modern Britain. They are open-minded and appreciate and applaud differences between people. Pupils make excellent progress in their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

Links with schools across Europe add much to pupils' understanding of other cultures and their ways of life. Pupils are very well equipped for leaving school. The qualifications that they gain and the excellent careers guidance that they receive prepare them very well for education, employment or training.

The school contributes significantly to the education of children with medical problems on a wider scale. It supports staff in local schools, and it shares its resources and expertise nationally and internationally through websites. Parents and carers are very complimentary about the school.

They admire the work that it does with their children in helping them to continue learning while their health needs are being dealt with. Very good local partnerships contribute much to pupils' academic, physical and social development.

Information about this school

The school is located across four sites in London: Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, Royal Brompton Hospital, St Mary's Hospital and the Collingham Child and Family Centre.

It is open for 50 weeks a year. Each location is managed on a day-to-day basis by a site coordinator. Most pupils are long- or short-stay in-patients with acute or chronic medical or mental health conditions.

Some are there because of one-off events, while others have to return regularly for ongoing treatment. Pupils up to the age of 16 years are in children's wards, while older students are in adult wards. Around a fifth of pupils are not in hospital but their health problems prevent them from attending a mainstream school.

The vast majority of these attend the Chelsea and Westminster site on a daily basis, and a few go to St Mary's each day. The school refers to day pupils as community pupils. Community pupils' health issues have caused them to have prolonged periods out of school before entering the hospital school.

The school roll is constantly changing as pupils are discharged from hospital and others admitted. There are roughly equal numbers of boys and girls at any one time. At the time of the inspection, just a few pupils had a statement of special educational needs for their medical or mental health conditions, although the number changes regularly as the school roll changes.

Pupils are taught in small classes or individually, depending on the nature and severity of their conditions. When patients' medical state prevents them attending classes in school, they may be taught bedside in the wards. The school provides home teaching for a very small number of pupils who are unable to work alongside other children.

Pupils have a very wide range of ethnic backgrounds and as some hospital patients are from overseas, a very small proportion of pupils speak English as an additional language. The school receives additional government funding, pupil premium, for a small number of pupils. This is additional funding for pupils known to be eligible for free school meals or who are looked after by the local authority.

The school also receives additional funding for primary school physical education and sport. The school has long-standing partnerships with Chelsea Academy, Servite Roman Catholic Primary School and Chelsea Open Air Nursery. Staff provide training sessions on working with pupils with mental health and medical conditions to newly appointed staff in local schools.

The school is currently involved in its fifth international project funded by the Comenius Programme. There have been significant staff changes since the end of the last school year. This has included changes to the senior leadership team, middle managers and staff with particular additional roles and responsibilities.