The Valley School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school.

Select All groups of students achieve well at school. Their achievement in language and communication, reading, English, mathematics and in their personal and social development is good. Teaching is good, resulting in most students making at least expected progress.

Where teaching is at its best, students are challenged and therefore extend their skills. Most of the parents who responded to the online questionnaire (Parent View) rightly say the school keeps their children safe. Behaviour is good and students say that there is no bullying.

Attendance is above that seen for similar schools and has continued to improve. Students re...ceive good-quality care and support and benefit from effective links with specialists to make sure all their needs are met. A good range of experiences for all students promotes their strong spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and their enjoyment of learning.

The headteacher is well supported by the senior leadership team. He has created a clear vision for the future and effectively brought about improvements since the last inspection. All leaders and managers, including the governors, have an accurate view of the school's performance resulting in increasingly good outcomes across the school.

Efficient planning by the governing body means money is spent well for the benefit of all groups of students, including those who are known to be eligible for the extra government funding (pupil premium). Good-quality training shows that there is a strong focus on managing and improving the performance of all staff. It is not yet an outstanding school because : There is not yet enough outstanding teaching to maximise all students' achievement.

In a small minority of lessons teachers do not always challenge the more able students and so opportunities are lost to raise their rates of progress. Systems to collect information about students' progress are not easily manageable and/or accessible to all staff.

Information about this school

The school has recently been re-designated as a school for students with learning difficulties, autistic spectrum disorders and speech, language and communication difficulties.

All students have a statement of special educational needs and most of the students are of White British origin. The proportion of students from minority ethnic groups is above average, with the proportion for whom English is an additional language being average. The proportion of students entering the school with additional special educational needs is increasing.

The proportion of students known to be eligible for free school meals and the pupil premium, additional government funding, is above average. The school does not receive any money from the government's Year 7 catch-up funding. A number of Year 11 students attend North Hertfordshire College on a range of courses.