Cherry Garden School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Short inspection of Cherry Garden School

Following my visit to the school on 26 June 2019 with Paula Farrow, 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 June 2015. This school continues to be outstanding.

The leadership team and governors have maintained the outstanding quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You and the senior leaders have a secure understanding of the school's strengths and areas necessary to support continued development. Since the last inspection, the school has moved t...o a brand new building as of January 2019.

There has been a period of settling in to the new environment for the pupils and the staff team but the move has been very positive. The new school building has offered the pupils amazing customised learning spaces. You and your leadership team have built upon outstanding practice and have effectively enhanced the quality of education that is provided to the pupils.

Learning sessions are well planned and resourced to meet the needs of all pupils. The staff team know the pupils well and because of this the learning and support offered to the children is exemplary. The atmosphere across the school is calm and purposeful.

Parents and carers speak very highly of both the school provision and support offered by the staff team. One parent specifically commented, 'It is a family atmosphere working together, the curriculum is individualised and tailored to the individual.' Staff speak positively about the support they receive for their own continuing professional development as well as their well-being.

There is a comprehensive in-house training system in place to ensure that staff are up to date with best practice strategies and interventions. This ensures that they are supporting pupils to achieve their best possible outcomes. Safeguarding is effective.

You and your leadership team have ensured that safeguarding practice remains effective. There are robust and transparent safeguarding protocols in place and any specific concerns are addressed immediately and effectively. Staff have a strong awareness of systems and are quick to raise concerns.

Parents also stated that their children were well cared for and safe. The school has had a new build and a move to the new site, which can be difficult for children to navigate; however, the pupils appear happy and settled into their new environment. Governors are clear in their understanding of their safeguarding responsibilities and the chair of the governing body completes a bi-annual safeguarding audit to ensure that best practice guidelines are in place.

Attendance is well monitored and challenged where there are concerns. There are effective links and systems in place to support where there are issues over attendance and this includes engaging with social care, health and other agencies as necessary. Inspection findings ? At the start of the inspection we agreed that we would look at how the school recognises and celebrates the achievements that the pupils make over time.

This was based on the area for development from the last Ofsted inspection where it was stated that the school needed to find ways to demonstrate pupils progress achievements more clearly. Since the last inspection, a very clear system is in place to collect information about, monitor and make best use of pupils' progress to support their next steps of learning. Both the curriculum and assessment models which the school use are interlinked and provide a strong framework for capturing pupils' progress.

Parental engagement with these systems is also very strong, which further enhances the evidence base and next steps for pupils' progress linking both school and home cohesively. ? There is evidence to show the positive impact of effective use of resources and secure management of staff deployment benefiting the pupils to secure their best outcomes. Resources are well differentiated to support pupils' progress, including a strong focus on communication for all.

This includes using symbol support systems, sign supported language and other engaging strategies. ? Pupils are engaged and enthusiastic within learning sessions. They took delight in sharing their work achievements and were proud to share enthusiasm for the tasks they were completing.

Staff are skilled at adapting and making the learning opportunities bespoke to the needs of individual children. Where pupils were distracted and had deviated off task, they were quickly supported to either re-engage or were encouraged to look at the task in a way that was child lead, but still beneficial to engagement with learning. ? You have built links with other schools and the local authority and as a result collaborative working is encouraged, thus strengthening the effectiveness of school systems.

You are an outreach provider sharing your school's expertise with other mainstream schools and providers sharing best practice models which will also positively impact children beyond Cherry Garden School. The outreach initiatives offered by the school including 'stay and play' are highly valued by the local community. ? At the start of the inspection we also agreed a second area for the focus which involved looking at the curriculum delivery.

The overall school curriculum has been carefully planned and mapped and is individualised based on pupils' specific learning and support needs. Emphasis is placed on supporting physical development, communication and personal and social development through a play-based delivery. Learning targets are linked closely to the pupils' education, health and care plan outcomes.

• Through careful triangulation of school systems, you and your staff team ensure that pupils achieve the best possible outcomes to help them move onto their next paths of learning, including starting in the early years and moving onto secondary school placements. There is a clear entry and exit programme of support in place to support pupils and their families starting school for the first time, as well as those transitioning to secondary school. There is a strong connectivity between the curriculum, specialist support programmes and the overall bespoke school assessment system.

• It is evident that a culture of staff review and reflection is embedded across the school. This refection process enables the curriculum to be appropriately adapted based on the changing needs of the pupil cohort at the school. Pupils of all abilities, whether with profound and multiple learning difficulties or autism spectrum disorder, benefit from meaningful and relevant learning opportunities which are well differentiated to meet their individual needs.

Next steps for the school Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that: ? as they settle into their new local community, they make best use of creating new curriculum links and local learning opportunities to continue to secure the best outcomes for the pupils. I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children's services for Southwark. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

Yours sincerely Lori Ann Mackey Ofsted Inspector Information about the inspection Inspectors met with you, senior leaders, teachers, and governors, including the chair of the governing body. Inspectors also met with the service manager for children with special educational needs and the early years foundation stage lead from the local authority. Jointly with senior leaders, inspectors observed learning across most year groups.

Inspectors scrutinised a range of documentation including that relating school improvement, safeguarding, attendance data, curriculum information and information about pupils' progress over time. Inspectors also took into account the views of seven parents who came to the school, as there were no recorded responses to the Ofsted online questionnaire, Parent View, as well as 14 staff responses to the Ofsted questionnaire. Inspectors looked at published information on the school's website.