Edstart

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 16 June 2026

Pupils at Edstart arrive having experienced significant disruption to their education and wellbeing. They often join the school carrying negative feelings about their learning and sometimes struggle to engage. Pupils meet staff who offer steady, reassuring support, helping them recognise that this school gives them a genuine fresh start. Here, staff quickly understand and reduce the barriers linked to pupils’ social and emotional needs, which helps pupils to attend school more frequently than before. Pupils feel safe, cared for and valued here. They are confident that staff help them explain their feelings and deal quickly with bullying or unkind behaviour. Pupils achieve well from often low starting points. This includes for disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Pupils experience an ambitious curriculum shaped around their social, academic and personal development needs This enables them to achieve meaningful accreditations, including in a range of GCSEs and AQA awards. Many pupils successfully move on to further education, training or employment. Pupils are calm and respectful throughout the school. They settle into school well due to the predictable routines and effective personalised support in place for them. Typically, classrooms are purposeful spaces. Pupils see value in what they are studying and most enjoy their learning. Staff have high expectations for behaviour and pupils respond well to them. Staff celebrate each pupil’s individual successes, helping them to build self belief and a hopeful sense of what their future can hold. Pupils benefit from a wide range of broader experiences on offer. For example, pupils relish activities such as cookery, padel, football tournaments with other schools and samba music days. These opportunities help pupils to discover new interests and talents.

What the school should improve

• Leaders should make sure that the targeted academic support pupils receive is matched precisely to the gaps that they have identified in pupils’ foundational knowledge.
• Leaders should ensure that teachers across the whole curriculum provide opportunities for pupils to reinforce their reading, writing, spelling and mathematical knowledge. This is to consolidate the gains that pupils make through targeted academic support.

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