Kettlebrook Short Stay School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 8 May 2024

Kettlebrook Short Stay School is a welcoming place where pupils are given a fresh start. This is reflected in the positive way staff receive pupils and treat them with kindness and compassion. Pupils benefit from opportunities for their wider personal development. They can take part in several activities outside their lessons. These include street first aid, climbing, music, and art. Pupils arrive at Kettlebrook with often negative experiences of school. Some have been excluded from their mainstream school and others are at risk of exclusion. Most have found school difficult. Staff work hard to build trusting relationships with pupils; they know them well and want the very best for them. Pupils feel supported and work towards re-engaging in school experiences. Pupils feel safe in school and know who to turn to if they have a concern. The school wants pupils to achieve well. The curriculum offers a range of subjects for pupils to study. However, there is work to improve the quality of education so that it consistently matches the quality of the personal development and pastoral offer. The school has worked alongside pupils to develop the school's behaviour expectations. While pupils often meet these, some do not, and lessons can be disrupted by pupils' behaviour. When this happens, pupils often receive direct support which helps them to reflect and regulate their behaviour.

What the school should improve

• The school is still at the early stages of implementing a reading curriculum. This means that pupils who need additional help do not receive enough targeted support to improve their reading skills. The school should ensure that a reading programme is implemented effectively to support the weakest readers to catch up.
• In some subjects, the school does not have high enough expectations for what pupils should do in lessons and the work they should produce. This means that the progress pupils make in some subjects is more variable than others. The school should ensure that teachers have consistently high expectations to enable pupils to make the progress of which they are capable.
• In some subjects, the school does not use assessment with enough precision to identify how well pupils are learning the intended curriculum. This means that, in some subjects, gaps in pupils' knowledge are not being routinely addressed and teachers do not always match future learning activities accurately enough to pupils' needs. The school should ensure that assessment is used consistently well to inform the selection of activities to best close gaps in pupils' learning.

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