Grove Park School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils, including students in the sixth form, do not receive an acceptable standard of education. Though some curriculum development has begun, this is at a very early stage. Staff lack the skills that they need to support pupils with very complex special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

Pupils experience a series of disjointed lessons that do not build their knowledge, skills or understanding because the curriculum is not carefully designed. This means that pupils do not achieve well, and their education, health and care (EHC) plans are not taken into account sufficiently well.

The school's expectations of pupils are low.

Pupils have few opportu...nities to gain meaningful qualifications. The school does not support pupils well to explore pathways into future education or employment. This hampers pupils' future choices and means they are not well prepared to make a positive and meaningful contribution to the world.

Many pupils attend school regularly. However, when in school, lessons are often disrupted and transition times around the school are, at times, disorganised. This is because pupils are not provided with clear and consistent routines.

A lack of staff training and specialist knowledge means that most adults are ill-equipped to support pupils to regulate their behaviour. Many staff do not know how to provide for pupils' sensory needs.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

A period of turbulence in leadership and staffing instability have contributed to a significant decline in the quality of provision to adequately meet the needs of pupils.

While a new whole school curriculum is in early development, this is not in place. Without clear curriculum guidance across all subject areas, it is difficult for teachers to design learning that helps build pupils' knowledge over time. As a result, teachers often work in isolation.

They lack direction and sufficient information to be clear about what pupils should learn, as well as when and how to teach subject content. In addition, the school does not have a system to check what pupils have learned. This means that staff do not know how well pupils have understood what they have been taught.

Consequently, the school and staff do not know what pupils, including children in the early years and students in the sixth form, are learning or how well they are doing.

Children in the early years are exposed to books and stories. The school is in the process of implementing a collection of stories and texts they want pupils to access over their time in school.

The school aspires to prioritise reading and it has adopted a published phonics scheme. However, the way this programme is delivered does not help pupils to become fluent, confident readers. Staff do not know how to appropriately adapt the scheme to teach phonics effectively.

As a result, many pupils are not able to read. Furthermore, those pupils who would benefit from early reading activities to develop their listening and engagement skills do not receive appropriate support.

As pupils progress through the school and on to sixth form, there are no clearly mapped out accreditation pathways.

Therefore, most pupils are not offered, and do not gain appropriate qualifications to support them to achieve their aspirations. Alongside this, there is a lack of consideration about how to best develop pupils' social communication and independent living skills. Careers information education advice and guidance are not provided in a coherent and organised way.

This limits pupils' future aspirations. They are not well prepared for their next steps and life in modern Britain.

Pupils have limited opportunities to learn how to build positive and healthy friendships and keep themselves safe.

The school has plans to address this weakness. Currently, there are few opportunities for pupils to experience enrichment activities, such as educational trips, visits and extra-curricular activities. The school does not promote pupils' wider development effectively.

Staff are eager to do their very best for pupils. However, the staff team as a whole do not have the necessary expertise and knowledge to provide pupils with the specialist support that they require. For example, there is a distinct lack of a consistent approach to support pupils to develop their functional communication or access communication aids correctly.

Alongside this, many staff do not understand how to support pupils to use the sensory equipment appropriately. This results in pupils becoming heightened rather than regulated through sensory activity. Many pupils struggle to engage in lessons because too often pupils are dysregulated.

Interim leaders have introduced a new behaviour policy and delivered some initial training. However, it is too early to see the impact of this new approach.

For some staff, the many recent changes have been difficult.

Some staff reported difficulty in managing their workload as new initiatives have come and gone and as they support the high number of temporary staff that are currently in school. As a result of the decline in standards, the local authority has replaced the governing body with an interim executive board (IEB). Board members have an understanding of the school and have contributed to some initial improvements.

They are also aware of the urgent action that is needed to tackle the weaknesses in the school.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Staff are well trained to spot signs that a pupil may be at risk.

They know how to report any worries in line with the school's policy. While this means pupils are kept safe, the school recognises the need to instil tenacity into the culture of safeguarding. At times, some of the records that are kept related to keeping pupils safe lack sufficient detail.

This prevents the school from being fully assured that vital information is not overlooked or missed.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Ongoing changes to leadership and staffing have resulted in a decline in pupils' education. In addition, the school continues to be reliant on external support.

The school, therefore, lacks the capacity to bring about much needed change. The school should work with stakeholders, including the IEB and local authority, to ensure that leadership and staffing are stabilised and to implement a clear and sustainable plan to improve the school. ? Sometimes, some safeguarding and behaviour records lack sufficient detail about the action that has been taken in response to an incident.

This means that vital information could be missed. The school should make sure that all actions related to safeguarding pupils are clearly and consistently recorded. ? The school's curriculum does not meet the needs of the pupils.

This means that pupils do not achieve as well as they should. The school must continue to implement an appropriately designed curriculum that ensures pupils learn to read, communicate and achieve ambitious qualifications. ? Pupils do not receive enough information or enrichment experiences to make informed choices about the next steps in their education, employment or training.

This prevents them from setting aspirations for their future. The school should ensure that pupils receive appropriate guidance to support their preparation for adulthood. ? Assessment strategies, including checks on pupils' EHC plan targets, are not used methodically to understand how well pupils learn and make progress.

This means that the school and staff do not have accurate information to identify and support pupils' next steps. The school should ensure that effective processes are established so that leaders and staff gain information about pupils' learning so that pupils achieve well. ? The vast majority of staff do not have the specialist expertise or knowledge that they need to overcome pupils' different barriers to learning.

This means that pupils' special educational needs are not consistently well met. The school should prioritise identifying and addressing the lack of specialist expertise. It should provide relevant training to ensure staff have the necessary skills and pedagogical knowledge to ensure that pupils learn and achieve well.

• The school's new behaviour policy and procedures are not fully in place. Additionally, consistent routines and expectations are not well established, and pupils' sensory needs are not met effectively. Too often this disrupts learning.

The school should ensure that staff are provided with the necessary training to be able to follow the school's agreed approaches and help pupils manage their behaviour effectively.The school may not appoint early career teachers before the next monitoring inspection. The position regarding the appointment of early career teachers will be considered again during any monitoring inspection we carry out.