Oxfordshire Hospital School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Oxfordshire Hospital School continues to be an outstanding school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils achieve extremely well during their time at Oxfordshire Hospital School.

Adults have very high expectations for pupils' achievement. They sensitively and positively support pupils to engage with learning when pupils are well enough to do so. Pupils value the one-to-one teaching they receive.

Pupils behave extremely well. They feel listened to and know that they quickly get the right help they need to learn.

Teaching staff expertly build warm, professional and trusting relationships with pupils.

They get to know pupils very well. This helps staf...f to tailor each pupil's curriculum to meet their medical and educational needs exceptionally well.

Pupils show positive attitudes to learning.

They enjoy their lessons and feel happy and very safe. Pupils who are inpatients say that doing schoolwork gives them a sense of normality in an environment that is anything but normal for them. Pupils in the outreach provision value the carefully stepped approach taken to re-engage them in learning.

The positive, well-staffed environment limits any potential for bullying. Teaching staff act quickly to support pupils should any be unkind to each other outside of the school environment.

Parents and carers praise the teaching staff for their compassionate, nurturing approach.

One parent said the school was the answer to her prayers.

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

Oxfordshire Hospital School succeeds in its aim to support pupils who are medically unable to attend their enrolled school to continue their learning. Leaders' attention to detail helps the school to meet their high ambitions for pupils' academic achievement and emotional and social well-being.

Many pupils have been out of education for a long time before joining the school. One example of the school's achievement is the very high proportion of pupils who successfully reintegrate back into a school when they are well enough to do so.

Teaching staff are experts at assessing pupils' starting points.

Staff liaise with pupils' enrolled school, their healthcare professionals and with the pupils themselves. They use the information from these conversations to plan a highly bespoke curriculum that meets each pupil's needs extremely well. Most pupils initially focus on learning English, mathematics and science, including to GCSE level for older pupils.

Reading has an especially strong focus for pupils of all ages. Those who need to, learn phonics using the programme followed by their enrolled school. Pupils relish taking books back to their ward or home to read with their families.

Teaching staff are highly trained in hospital education. This includes knowing how to adapt learning to meet medical needs and the needs of any pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Teachers have strong specialist knowledge of the subjects they teach.

All this enables all teaching staff to be highly responsive to pupils. For example, staff recognise that pupils' memory and ability to learn new things are often affected by their health and medication. They adeptly respond to pupils' changing needs, adapting the curriculum and recapping on prior teaching to help pupils learn extremely well.

Teaching staff have high expectations. They make sure that pupils are able to keep up with learning during their stay in hospital or while part of the outreach programme. Impressively, many pupils who are behind when they join the school catch up by the end of their stay.

This includes those pupils who have been out of education for a significant period of time before they join the school.

The curriculum broadens to include subjects such as art, food technology and humanities if pupils are well enough. Lessons are planned not only to build learning in a particular subject, but are also built around the school's values.

This provides a useful backbone to the curriculum, helping learning to make sense for pupils whose attendance might be necessarily sporadic. Importantly, this approach helps pupils to feel that they are contributing to the community of the school, even though they might not learn with other pupils very often due to their medical needs.

The school's focus on pupils' wider development is exceptional.

Personal, social and health education is highly bespoke. Gaps in knowledge about healthy relationships are skilfully uncovered and filled in an age-appropriate way. Planning for pupils return to school or home, and for later life and work, is carefully considered.

Adults know that for many pupils, especially those who have significant medical, social, emotional or mental health needs, thinking about the future is particularly difficult. Pupils told us how much they appreciate this aspect of the curriculum because it 'caters for me specifically' and helps them to think positively about their next stages.

Leaders and governors recognise the dedication of staff.

They make sure their well-being is strongly prioritised. Staff are extremely, and rightly, proud to work at the school.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders and staff are well trained in safeguarding and child protection. They constantly check on pupils' well-being and safety. Communication with other agencies, in particular the NHS, is very strong.

This means that pupils quickly get any additional help they need to keep safe.

Staff make sure that pupils are taught about how to keep themselves safe, including when using the internet and when in their local community. Staff carefully tailor help to meet pupils' needs.

Leaders check thoroughly that staff are suitable to work with children. Leaders also check the safety of the different places in the community used as part of the outreach provision.

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 first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be outstanding in July 2017.

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