Cambian Dunbroch School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 8 July 2025

Pupils are supported to feel safe and secure. All pupils have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). They have had many changes in their lives before coming here. Staff help pupils feel really valued and to start to build up their self- esteem. Pupils enjoy the varied activities and trips that help build up confidence. This all contributes to excellent attitudes to learning. When pupils start at the school, staff spend time getting to know them and plan individualised curriculums. Pupils are supported to both follow existing interests and develop new knowledge. For example, after creating a poster for a football team, this was linked to an unfamiliar artist who works in the same style and new artwork was created. Many pupils have been out of school for some time. The individualised work they receive gives them assurance that they can succeed in school. As pupils become regular attenders, the school is ambitious for what they can achieve. Most pupils aged 16 or above gain accredited qualifications. Experienced teachers support them to learn the content needed, sometimes in a very short timescale. However, some pupils do not attend regularly, so they do not benefit from the school's strong provision.

What the school should improve

• In some subjects, it is not clear how individualised programmes of study are meeting pupils' identified gaps in learning. Where this is the case, activities and sequences of lessons are not consistently linked to the gaps in pupils' learning. This means that pupils do not develop their knowledge in the way that they need to. Leaders cannot check that pupils are learning the right knowledge in the right order. The school needs to ensure that staff design activities and sequences of lessons that have more precise connections to pupils' knowledge gaps, so that pupils learn effectively across the full range of subjects they study.
• The school does not use assessment information effectively across the full range of subjects. This means the school does not have an accurate picture of how well pupils achieve across the curriculum. The school needs to ensure that assessment information is used effectively to identify how well pupils are achieving and to inform next steps in their learning.

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