Bridgelea Pupil Referral Unit

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 5 December 2023

Staff greet pupils with a warm smile each morning. This helps pupils to have a positive start to their day. Typically, pupils feel happy and safe at Bridgelea. They described a firm sense of belonging to this school community. In part, this is because of the strong and trusting relationships that staff forge with pupils. Pupils have often experienced disruption to their education in the past. To address this, the school makes sure that staff understand pupils' additional and individual learning needs. Armed with this information, staff strive to reignite pupils' interest in learning. Typically, staff are successful in re-engaging most pupils. The school has high expectations for pupils' achievement. Overall, pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), learn well. Pupils benefit from skilled and knowledgeable staff. Pupils experience a broad range of enrichment activities. They enjoy the many extra- curricular opportunities that staff provide, including trips and visits. For example, pupils get the chance to develop life skills through visiting local shops and places of interest. These experiences help to develop pupils' confidence, their social skills and their self- esteem. The school has equally high expectations for pupils' behaviour. Typically, pupils learn in a calm and purposeful learning environment.

What the school should improve

• In a minority of subjects, the curriculum has not been finalised. This hinders how deeply some pupils learn new information. Furthermore, it hampers how well leaders evaluate the implementation of the curriculum. The school should finalise its curriculum thinking in these remaining subjects. It should strengthen how well it quality assures the effectiveness of the delivery of the curriculum in these areas.

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