Harlow Fields School and College

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 14 January 2025

Pupils attend a school where the adults treat them with care and kindness. Pupils appreciate, for example, how they can signal to adults when they like or dislike something. Adults mostly respond well to pupils' communication. By meeting their needs, adults help pupils to feel happy and safe. Behaviour is generally calm here. This makes the school a pleasant place to be. Pupils appreciate that the school introduced new equipment to help them exercise and play at breaktimes. They enjoy, for instance, taking turns on the nest swing with one or two friends. The school is working to address gaps in the curriculum, teaching and staff training. While this progress continues, occasional challenges in these areas sometimes contribute to poor behaviour. The current systems to manage these behavioural incidents do not always work as well as they could. The school wants pupils to achieve their very best. In the past year, it has started working on improving the curriculum to raise expectations for what pupils will learn and be able to do. However, some parts of the curriculum are incomplete. This makes it harder for pupils to learn important ideas. Sometimes, pupils do not remember what they have learned or develop skills, such as writing or using their own communication method, to share their thoughts and feelings.

What the school should improve

• The curriculum, including early reading, and the school's approach to assessment lack clarity. This hinders teachers' ability to deliver the curriculum effectively and limits how well pupils' progress is checked and supported. The school should define and communicate what pupils need to learn and provide clear guidance on how staff should check pupils' understanding and use this information to inform their teaching.
• There are gaps in the resources needed to teach effectively, such as decodable books and other learning aids. These gaps limit teachers' ability to deliver high-quality lessons and restrict pupils' opportunities to develop key skills. The school should ensure all necessary resources are available and that staff have the expertise to use them effectively to enhance pupils' learning experiences.
• Transitions and activities do not always support pupils in maintaining calm behaviour, which can lead to moments of dysregulation and disruption. This affects the overall learning environment and the ability of staff to manage behaviour consistently. The school should strengthen its approaches to behaviour management, ensuring consistency in practice and effective support during incidents.
• The school is managing multiple pressing challenges, including staffing and finance, which can make improvement planning more reactive and limit the focus on setting objective, measurable targets. This, in turn, makes it harder to evaluate the impact of actions and demonstrate clear progress in key areas such as curriculum, teaching and behaviour. To strengthen its approach, the school should set clearer targets and timescales, ensuring that staff, parents and other stakeholders better understand priorities and the steps being taken to address them.

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