Clovelly House School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 16 April 2024

Pupils hold positive views of the experience and education they receive at this school. They value the teaching time that they have with individual staff. This supports them to become better engaged with their learning. Pupils benefit from a good quality of education. Pupils feel safe and build strong relationships with key workers who keep a very close eye on them. Pupils all have an individual space that they customise. This allows them to feel at home. Pupils develop their speech and language through planned 'talk time' sessions. This also helps them to regulate their emotions better and to talk about any concerns that they may have. Staff plant a tree for every pupil that leaves the school. This indicates that a pupil always has a special place in the school and is never forgotten. There is a moral purpose of ensuring that every pupil is developed to be independent and take their place in society. Pupils learn about budgeting by doing the weekly school menu and going to the local shops and purchasing the ingredients. The school builds close links with local businesses so that pupils benefit from experiences of visiting the local gym or tropical bird land. This helps pupils to learn as well as allowing them to develop physically.

What the school should improve

• Some staff do not always use the most effective teaching methods or activities. This can sometimes limit how quickly pupils learn. The school must ensure that staff know how to teach most effectively.
• While, in general, pupils attend more regularly when compared with their attendance at their previous school, there are some pupils who are still absent too often. These pupils miss out on the good quality of education and care the school provides. The school should ensure that these pupils receive the support they require to help them attend regularly, including through the strategies that the school has devised but not yet implemented.
• The careers education provision is of a suitably high quality for older pupils. However, some younger pupils and those on the outreach programme do not receive careers provision of a similar quality. The school must ensure that the careers education provision is of an equally high quality for all pupils.

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