Heather Bridge School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 10 December 2024

Pupils at Heather Bridge School have often had previous fragmented educational experiences or been out of school for periods of time. The school prioritises re- engaging pupils with education. The strong focus on relationships, that the school has adopted, results in pupils who feel safe and well cared for. Pupils trust the adults they work with. Consequently, they respond with increasing positivity and success to the school's strong culture of high expectations of their behaviour and respect for each other. Staff demonstrate care, expertise and belief in pupils. This results in pupils growing in confidence and becoming more self-aware. Pupils form aspirations for their future pathways. These are supported well by the school's ambition for them to be successful when they leave. Pupils learn a curriculum which is designed to become more demanding, the longer the pupils are at the school. Pupils benefit from the increasingly successful balance that the school strikes with meeting their social and emotional needs so that they are ready to learn. Learning is designed to merge pupils' strengths and interests with their education, health and care (EHC) plan outcomes. This sustains the focus on learning, which the school has re-kindled.

What the school should improve

• Teaching is not consistently adapted well enough to meet pupils' academic learning needs. It does not fully support its academic offer to be as strong as the offer to meet pupils' social and emotional needs. Consequently, pupils do not achieve as well as they could in some aspects of the curriculum. The proprietor body should ensure that the school has the knowledge and expertise needed to adapt learning to meet pupils' academic needs more effectively.
• Sometimes, new content is not introduced clearly enough, and activities are not well matched to the intended learning. This hinders pupils' learning and can occasionally create additional difficulties for pupils. The proprietor body should support the school to strengthen its monitoring and review of curriculum implementation so that it matches more closely with how it intends pupils to learn.
• The school's approach to teaching some aspects of writing is not fully effective. This means that pupils' handwriting and transcription skills are not as developed as they could be. The proprietor body should support the school with an approach to writing which ensures that pupils get the appropriate skills they need to write with increasingly fluency, accuracy and confidence.

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