Hope Tree School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 5 November 2024

In this nurturing environment, pupils are supported to develop their social skills at their own pace. They enjoy making new friends and value the positive social interaction they have with their peers. They appreciate the range of activities on offer to develop these skills, such as axe throwing, ice skating and visits to an alpaca farm. Pupils are delighted to have found a school that meets their needs. Before arriving at Hope Tree School, pupils experienced significant disruption to their education. Many arrive with gaps in their learning. Teachers are aware of this and are ambitious for pupils. They provide them with individualised support based on their specific needs. Pupils appreciate the clear routines which are in place to help them feel secure. They benefit from small class sizes and a quiet learning environment. This reduces their sensory overload and minimises their stress levels. This helps pupils to do well from their different starting points. Incidents of poor behaviour are extremely rare. Pupils receive a high level of care that helps them to remain very settled. If they do become upset, the adults quickly provide effective support to help them to feel calmer.

What the school should improve

• In some subjects, the curriculum lacks sufficient detail about the key skills and knowledge that pupils should learn. This means that, sometimes, pupils complete work that does not build well enough on their starting points. Subsequently, some pupils do not achieve as well as they should. The school should ensure that the curriculum is sufficiently detailed, so pupils benefit from work that supports them to achieve well.
• Teachers predominantly use verbal feedback to let pupils know how they are doing and how to improve. Sometimes, pupils miss out on this information, particularly when they have difficulties processing the oral input. Where this happens, pupils do not have the information they need to improve their work and meet the rigour of the curriculum. The school must ensure that teachers provide pupils with a variety of ways to access feedback to meet their different needs.
• The proprietor body does not have a sufficiently robust system in place to check the impact of their actions. This means areas for improvement are not always acted upon quickly enough. The proprietor body must ensure that there are appropriate systems in place, so they are effectively held to account for the quality of education that pupils receive.

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