Jack Tizard School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Jack Tizard School continues to be an outstanding school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are very happy and enjoy coming to school. This is because they are known well by all members of the school community.

Staff greet pupils each day and celebrate their individual strengths and contributions.

The school ensures that pupils, regardless of their needs, receive a high quality of education. This is provided with excellent levels of individual care.

Staff look beyond pupils' complex needs and set the highest expectations for them to develop their independence. Pupils rise to these expectations, demonstrating their character and individuality.

...Parents and carers are effusive in their praise for the school.

They value how their children are treated with dignity and respect by all staff. The relationships between pupils and staff are strong. Pupils are kind and show this through their warm welcome for visitors.

Pupils' behaviour is excellent and skilfully managed. Incidences of bullying are very rare. Pupils feel safe and are kept secure here.

A wide range of opportunities in the community support pupils to develop confidence beyond the classroom. For example, all pupils go ice skating and older pupils engage positively with work experience. This prepares them well for the next stage of their education, employment, or training.

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

The curriculum is planned and designed around pupils' individual needs and the information outlined in their education, health and care (EHC) plans. Similarly, the curriculum in early years is adapted well to meet children's specific and complex learning needs. The curriculum is broad and covers the important and necessary knowledge and skills the pupils need for their future lives.

The school focuses on what pupils can do. It has high expectations for them all to learn through the curriculum and beyond. Every moment is a learning opportunity.

For instance, at snack and lunchtimes, pupils develop their communication and social skills. They make choices with their food and communicate in a range of ways. Sixth-form students eat in their own area and enjoy socialising together.

Pupils speak with enthusiasm about the opportunities they have to apply their learning in real-life situations, such as their visit to the local café.

Staff collaborate well with a range of therapists to design individual learning. This is based on the information in pupils' EHC plans and individual learning intentions (ILIs).

All staff have a secure knowledge of what learning activities best support pupils with complex needs. For example, when pupils require tactile resources, sand was provided to represent a poem about a wartime soldier on a beach.

The school promotes a love of reading.

All pupils listen and respond well to language through stories, rhymes, poetry and songs. Sensory stories are used well to provide access and bring books to life. Some pupils learn to read through phonics.

The curriculum for these pupils is well designed and adapted so that they read with increasing fluency and accuracy.

Pupils' ILIs outline strategies for staff to use to help pupils to manage their emotions and behaviour and to focus on their learning. Staff are skilful in their approach if pupils find it hard to manage themselves at certain times.

As a result, behaviour is exceptional, and pupils engage positively in their learning. The school arranges for medical appointments to be in school. This supports pupils' attendance at school.

The school analyses patterns of attendance closely. There are strong systems in place to follow up any absences quickly.

The provision for pupils' wider personal development is a strong feature of the school.

There is a well-designed and personalised personal, social and health education (PSHE) curriculum. This helps pupils learn how to stay safe on and offline and learn about different cultures, respectful relationships and how their bodies work. The school has excellent links with local businesses who visit pupils in school.

Pupils are encouraged to make a positive contribution to the local area. For example, they make regular visits to the local community, where they are influencing local shopping centres to be more accessible and inclusive. Pupils also experience visits to different places such as the residential trip to a more rural locality.

Leaders and staff work well with different outside agencies, health teams and parents. Regular meetings, communication and training all contribute to exceptional integrated provision for pupils. Staff are dedicated to their work.

They feel supported and appreciate the care for their well-being and consideration of their workload demonstrated by leaders.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Background

When we have judged a school to be outstanding we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains outstanding.

This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour, or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

This is the second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be outstanding in June 2018.