Rivermead School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 20 February 2024

Pupils are well prepared for a bright and happy future because dedicated staff pay meticulous attention to meeting each individual's needs. As soon as pupils join the school, staff identify the precise support that pupils need to achieve their best. Those that need specialist care receive this from a team of expert staff. Most pupils in the 'Triple R' provision successfully return to their mainstream school or go on to college. The appropriate therapeutic care, alongside the ambitious academic curriculum on offer, readies them for the next stage of their education. Pupils meet the school's high expectations of behaviour because they know that staff want the very best for them. Calm and consistent routines make it clear what pupils need to do to make school a positive place in which to learn. Pupils take pride in their successes because staff take time to celebrate these. Corridors display pupils' wonderful work and pictures of them putting life skills into practice when out in the community. Pupils proudly wear bright pin badges to show how many points they have earned for showing 'SUPERstar' behaviours, such as resilience. Pupils learn to speak with confidence. They are keen to greet visitors to school with a warm smile or a friendly handshake.

What the school should improve

• Support for pupils at the earlier stages of reading is not yet embedded across the whole school. This potentially hinders how well these pupils learn to read. The school must implement plans to provide the specific phonics support that some pupils need to help them become confident and fluent readers.

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