Carwarden House Community School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 13 March 2023

Pupils love this school and its community feel. The strong relationships pupils have with staff make them feel happy and safe. When asked what the best thing about the school is, one pupil reflected the views of many, telling the lead inspector, 'The staff are very nice to us.' Staff help pupils to improve their social skills, teaching them how to interact with others. Consequently, pupils develop positive friendships. They rarely use repeated, unkind language towards each other, but staff are adept at tackling this quickly when it happens. High expectations of pupils' learning and behaviour permeate Carwarden House. Pupils behave well. There are no barriers to what staff expect pupils to achieve. Staff are relentless in their pursuit to ensure that all pupils enter further education, training or employment, and become successful, happy and independent young adults. Pupils' individual needs are met well. Pupils benefit from the different experiences they have. The school council offers purposeful leadership opportunities. Many older pupils love the chance they have to do work experience and attend college as part of their educational offer. For example, some pupils are working in hotels, supermarkets and food outlets. Others are following courses in hair and beauty, and engineering at a local college.

What the school should improve

• In a small number of subjects, the implementation of the curriculum is not consistently or closely matched with the intended curriculum. The teaching materials that teachers select are not always successful in helping pupils to achieve the aims of the curriculum as effectively as they could. Leaders should ensure that the curriculum is implemented consistently well across all subjects.
• Middle leaders do not monitor the implementation of the curriculum well enough. This means that some of them have not identified the variability in how well the curriculum is delivered. Leaders should ensure that middle leaders monitor the curriculum more effectively.

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