Saxon Mount School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

This school is a welcoming, joyful place where pupils flourish. All pupils here have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff get to know pupils well and respond to their needs with expertise.

They care for pupils and make them feel safe. Relationships across the school are highly respectful.

The school has exceptionally high expectations for all pupils.

Pupils are eager learners who rise to meet these expectations. Pupils benefit from skilful support to independently regulate their emotions, enabling them to learn in a calm environment. Pupils achieve remarkably well from their different starting points.

Personal development is a ...strength. Preparation for adulthood is a golden thread woven through all aspects of school life. A carefully constructed curriculum teaches pupils the skills and knowledge they will need to be independent, which prepares pupils for their next steps.

This includes effective career guidance and thoughtful opportunities to explore the world of work. Furthermore, a thoughtfully constructed personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) program ensures pupils learn about how to keep themselves safe, including important issues such as healthy relationships and consent. Pupils value opportunities to learn about different faiths, democracy and the rule of law.

This helps them to develop highly inclusive attitudes.

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

The curriculum is highly aspirational. It has been carefully designed so pupils experience a broad range of subjects, including an interesting and engaging range of options.

Content is organised and sequenced carefully to ensure knowledge and skills are built in a logical order. The curriculum is frequently adapted in order to meet the differing needs and starting points of pupils. Pupils achieve highly, often leaving the school with a range of ambitious qualifications and accreditations.

This ensures they leave school able to access further education, employment or training.

Teachers have superb subject knowledge and are experts in supporting pupils with SEND. They clearly and confidently explain new learning, using well-chosen resources to help pupils understand.

All staff understand pupils' needs and use routines and strategies to support pupils' engagement with their learning. Teachers effectively check pupils' understanding and ensure the work pupils are given builds on what they already know.

Reading, writing and mathematics are given high priority.

Pupils benefit from daily opportunities to develop knowledge and skills in each of these areas. A progressively ambitious curriculum of texts encourages pupils to develop a love of reading. The school has effective systems in place to support pupils who are at the early stages of reading.

Staff identify pupils' needs accurately and deliver well-structured phonics sessions. As a result, pupils get better at reading.

The school ensures the highest possible attendance.

Through a positive approach that supports pupils and families, issues regarding attendance are swiftly addressed, leading to improved attendance over recent years.

Personal development is woven through everything the school does. Life skills are taught across the curriculum.

For example, lessons on using public transport give them the skills and confidence they need to travel safely to and from college or the workplace. The school offers a range of purposeful cultural opportunities to increase pupils' awareness and enjoyment of the world around them. This includes visits to the theatre, a local gallery and museums.

Pupils enjoy outdoor learning, which is deliberately enriched through visits to workplaces, such as a local farm and forestry. Pupil leadership roles allow pupils to tangibly contribute to the school. For example, older pupils help younger pupils with their writing.

Parents and carers hold the school in high regard and speak positively about Saxon Mount's life-changing impact on their children. Much of the school's outstanding provision can be attributed to the relentlessly high ambitions and a determined aspiration for all pupils to succeed, a vision shared by all staff. All staff benefit from high-quality, targeted training that gives them the skills and confidence they need to fulfil their roles.

They feel valued and well-supported. As a result, staff are happy and take pride in being part of an inclusive team.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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