Leigh Academy Milestone

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

Milestone is an outstanding school that provides exemplary education, care and value for money.

The school has gone from strength to strength owing to highly effective leadership. Links with parents and carers and others play a highly significant part in the pupils' development. The headteacher explained it like this, 'So many people have played an important part on the journey, building step by step on the foundations.

Then came the layers of icing and finally we worked for the cherry on top of the cake in our vision to be outstanding. We have all done this for our youngsters.' The impact of outstanding teaching and an exciting and relevant curriculum leads to the pupils achieving exceptiona...lly well, whatever their need, as they move through the school.

The Early Years Foundation Stage is good and the sixth form is outstanding. The school's specialist accreditation for 'Cognition and Learning' is greatly deserved due to the impact on the pupils' development and because of the impressive outreach support for other schools. Almost all parents and carers agree that their children enjoy school.

Inspectors confirm that pupils in each department are very safe; safeguarding procedures are exemplary. Adults go out of their way to ensure that the outstanding promotion of equal opportunities is at the core of the school's work. The pupils are so well supported and praised that they learn how to behave outstandingly well.

They very quickly overcome any daily difficulties that occur so that they can get on with the business of learning and having fun. They show immense respect and are kind and helpful to each other. As one pupil explained, 'I learn to behave good'; while another said, 'We keep each happy'.

Almost everyone makes significant improvement in their ability to concentrate. The pupils' involvement in the school and their interaction in the wider community, nationally and globally are substantial and highly valued. This underpins the outstanding community cohesion.

In addition to basic communication and academic skills, opportunities to adopt healthy and safe lifestyles are very impressive. Everyone values the range of exercise, very good food and varied ways that enable exploration of emotions. The excellent work of the chef, therapy and nursing staff as well as the arts and physical education staff contributes immensely to the notable outcomes.

Spiritual, moral, social and cultural education is very carefully interwoven into the daily life of the school in exceptional ways. The superb vision of the headteacher, when linked with the outstanding work of the governing body, and dedicated teamwork of staff, has resulted in the pursuit of excellence. There is determination to lift the long-term economic well-being of the pupils to be outstanding in the future.

A sizeable group of pupils has to have time off due to their complex illness, sleeping difficulties or hospital treatment. This is why rates of attendance are low overall. When they are well, their attendance quickly improves.

The attendance of all other groups is exceptionally high. So far, the school is doing very well in almost all areas, but correctly wants to make sure that the pupils have the best possible understanding of transferable skills, for example in using shape, space and measurement, where there is room for further improvement. Ambitious plans are underway to expand pupils' experiences for transition into adult life.

These features remain the focus for the school's development and correctly so. Since the school's previous inspection, staff have maintained the pupils' outstanding personal development and moved almost all other outcomes over a grade boundary from being good, because of high expectation and very rigorous self-evaluation. Highly sophisticated and accurate analysis of pupils' progress is used unflinchingly to set and achieve targets against the most stretching of benchmarks.

The school demonstrates an outstanding capacity to improve and remains relentlessly focused on ensuring that teaching continues to be consistently of the highest order.

Information about the school

Milestone is a large school when compared with other special schools, but is smaller than most mainstream schools that teach the same age groups. Numbers attending the school have risen considerably since the school's previous inspection.

All pupils have statements for special educational needs or attend for assessment. Broadly, 20% of all pupils have complex medical conditions, which require specialist on-site nursing care. Broadly, 19% have profound and multiple learning difficulties.

The large majority of pupils use signing to communicate and a high proportion have a diagnosis of autism. Most pupils come from a 20 mile radius although some come from other local authorities. The vast majority of pupils are boys from White British backgrounds.

A few pupils are of Asian, Black African or mixed heritages. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is higher than average. The school provides outreach support for autism and behaviour difficulties for pupils at other schools.

There is an on-site after-school club, which is managed by the governing body. The school has an Early Years Foundation Stage, which is made up of a Nursery and Reception class. Provision continues through Key Stages 1, 2, 3 and 4.

There is also a sixth form, which includes a further education centre. Further education was not part of this inspection. The school gained specialist school status in Cognition and Learning; as well as a wide range of other accreditations.