Cardrew Court School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 3 June 2025

Cardrew Court School is a place of healing and reintegration for its pupils. Pupils arrive following long periods out of education. Most settle quickly and re-engage in their education positively. Staff share high aspirations. They seek to secure positive learning experiences for pupils. Pupils study personalised programmes, built around a precisely considered core curriculum. They commit to their learning because they know staff care about their success. Most pupils go on to improve their attendance and achieve well. Pupils benefit from positive relationships with staff. Staff promote care, tolerance and respect. Discriminatory or unkind behaviour is not tolerated. Pupils say that bullying is very rare, if it ever happens. They know who they can speak to if they are worried. Consequently, pupils are safe. Established routines and high expectations help pupils to experience success. As a result, the school is calm, and lessons are purposeful. Although exceptionally rare, when pupils are reluctant to learn, staff know what to do. This helps pupils to manage their own feelings and refocus on learning successfully. Collectively, this helps pupils to develop positive attitudes about school and their learning. They also learn how to maintain relationships and recognise their own self-worth.

What the school should improve

• The delivery of the curriculum is stronger in some subjects than others. This means pupils learn and remember more in some subjects compared to others. The school should continue to embed and develop the curriculum so that its delivery is consistently strong and pupils learn more and remember more across all subjects.
• The checks made by staff to identify and address gaps in pupils' knowledge is variable. This means that, occasionally, pupils have gaps in their knowledge or misconceptions that go unaddressed. The school should strengthen the checks that staff make on pupils' knowledge so that gaps are identified swiftly and addressed consistently.

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