Children's Support Service

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 10 May 2023

Pupils have a positive experience at the Children's Support Service. Many join having experienced significant disruption in their previous schooling. The service helps them to re-connect with education and achieve well. Pupils understand the high expectations staff have for their conduct. Pupils are taught how to make positive decisions about their behaviour. The longer they remain with the school, the better they behave. Pupils put this down to the consistently calm and patient approach of the adults working with them. Pupils feel safe and well looked after. They forge trusting relationships with other pupils and with adults. Staff are swift to stop any rare incidents of bullying that occur. All pupils have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Each follows a programme closely matched to their individual needs and capabilities. Pupils respond well to the ambitious, interesting learning activities offered in lessons. Most pupils develop positive attitudes to and understand the value of learning. This includes developing a positive attitude to reading. For a few older pupils, this takes longer. Pupils benefit from the extensive range of enrichment and careers opportunities. They become ambitious for their futures and develop a greater sense of self-worth. Many pupils, including those taught online, reintegrate successfully into mainstream education.

What the school should improve

• On occasion, curriculum plans for what pupils should learn are not well sequenced. Where this is the case, while teachers choose to teach activities that interest pupils, these activities do not enable pupils to build up their knowledge securely over time. Leaders should make sure that the curriculum in each subject, and how it is taught, helps pupils to build on their previous studies.
• Older pupils do not develop the same level of enthusiasm for reading as their younger peers. Leaders have stepped up their work to ensure that the curriculum across all secondary subjects supports the development of pupils' reading. However, leaders have yet to review the impact of this work. Leaders should take stock of the strategies that staff have put in place and share good practice so that older pupils develop and sustain a love of reading.

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