Alderwood School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 15 October 2024

Pupils enjoy coming to Alderwood School. There is a strong sense of community here, and one that is fully inclusive of all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils across the age ranges know how to treat each other with kindness, and relationships between staff and pupils are positive and warm. Pupils behave well and bullying is rare. Where it does occur, pupils are confident in staff's ability to deal with it swiftly. Pupils relish the leadership opportunities available to them, including being representatives on the school council, acting as prefects, 'new arrival ambassadors' and 'buddies' for younger readers. They are proud to hold these responsibilities and contribute to the life of their school. Leaders are ambitious for pupils to do well and 'be the best they can be'. These ambitions are realised fully in the primary phase, where pupils achieve particularly well. Pupils are keen to share what they have learned, and they remember this learning well over time. However, this is not the case in the secondary phase, where pupils' recall is more variable. Here, pupils do not achieve well enough and, while there has been work by the school to tackle this, it has not yet made enough of a difference to what pupils know and remember.

What the school should improve

• Assessment and checks on pupil understanding in the senior school are not as precise as they need to be. This means that staff do not always have an accurate understanding of what pupils have understood or pick up on subject-specific misconceptions quickly enough. The school needs to develop their assessment practices so that staff can identify what pupils know and where they need to adapt their input accordingly, to support pupils in doing well.
• Staff in the senior school do not consistently support pupils in knowing more and remembering more over time. Leaders need to ensure that pupils are supported in recalling their learning in the long term, to lead to more effective outcomes for all pupils.
• The steps taken to improve what pupils know, remember and how well they achieve in the senior school have not been effective enough. The school needs to ensure that leaders at all levels have robust systems for monitoring and evaluating their work, to assure themselves that the steps taken are having the impact they intend and pupils are supported in achieving well.

Read the full Ofsted report (opens in a new tab)