Ivetsey Bank Hospital School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 28 January 2025

At Ivetsey Bank, pupils are surrounded by care, support and hope. Education, health and care combine to make a special difference to a group of very special young people. From often complicated and traumatic lives, Ivetsey Bank Hospital School empowers a sense of ambition and belief in those who attend. Ambitions are high that pupils' health needs will not limit their achievements. Caring and attentive teachers work with health and care teams to prioritise education. Partnerships with home schools, parents and carers develop a sense of what can be achieved. Surrounded by this ambition, pupils overcome barriers caused by their conditions and develop a love of learning and personal ambition. Relationships at Ivetsey Bank matter. Because of their health needs, pupils' behaviour could be challenging. However, pupils told inspectors they knew the staff cared and wanted the best for them. Consequently, there are few cases of low-level disruption and challenging behaviour during lessons and in the school. Therapy and treatment work in partnership with education to support pupils' readiness to return to health services in their communities and often to their original schools. Events such as 'The Great British Rake Off' and 'IvetseyFest' provide community activities to develop interests in gardening, music, business enterprise and catering opportunities.

What the school should improve

• In some subjects, written sequences of learning do not always identfiy how knowledge will build over time. Also, planned learning sequences are only available in some subjects. This risks future learning as only the teacher will know what the pupils need to know next and how, and this is not always communicated with the rest of the school, including the pupils. The school should ensure that there are planned and communicated sequences of lessons that build on previous knowledge in all subjects.
• In some subjects, staff do not routinely adapt the curriculum for pupils with needs beyond SEMH. Written provision plans rarely articulate clearly the precise nature of the needs beyond SEMH. Consequently, teachers are unsure how to adapt provisions for SLCN, SPD, and/or CI needs. The school needs to ensure that all pupils' additional needs are precisely identified and assessed, and that the curriculum implementation is adapted according to these needs.
• In some cases, when pupils are away from lessons due to their complex SEMH needs, there are too few opportunities for them to catch up. While teachers quickly carry on where the pupils left off when they return, teachers do not prioritise catching up on the missing learning. This means that for some pupils, learning progress is delayed. When a pupil is away for reasons linked to treatment and therapy, the school should ensure that it prioritises the most crucial learning missed to help pupils catch up quickly.

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