Doucecroft School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 25 February 2025

Doucecroft School is a happy place. Pupils thrive socially. Adults teach them the skills they need to communicate and cooperate with others. Pupils arrive at school with enthusiasm for the day ahead. They have good relationships with the adults that care for them. Many pupils attend school all or nearly all the time. This is often an improvement from not attending previous schools at all. Pupils begin to make progress academically but could achieve more highly than they do. They are not always taught as well as they should be. The proprietor and school leaders are ambitious for pupils to do better, but there is currently limited capacity for leaders to improve teaching. Staff help pupils well to develop strategies to regulate their own behaviour. Staff are calm and patient with pupils. As a result, most pupils behave well. Pupils enjoy the many trips out and experiences that they do not necessarily access elsewhere in life. For instance, they regularly visit the beach. Older pupils take part in work experience activities. All of this develops their abilities to cope with unfamiliar situations and life beyond the school.

What the school should improve

• In some subjects, the school has not thought carefully about how pupils' learning builds over time. This hinders pupils in developing secure bodies of knowledge in these subjects. The school should ensure that the curriculum provides clarity about what pupils should learn and when in each subject.
• The learning intention and what pupils are given to do are not always closely linked. Sometimes work given has too low expectations of what pupils can achieve. Other times, pupils are asked to start an activity without the prerequisite knowledge they require to complete their work. This means that pupils are not learning as well as they should. The school should ensure that learning intentions, teaching points and work given are closely linked and of high quality.
• The leadership team's ability to have an impact on school improvement has been severely impacted by a lack of key personnel. This means that the quality of education is not as good as it should be. The proprietor should ensure that the increased capacity in the leadership team is able to successfully address the weaknesses in the provision.

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