Roaches School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 23 September 2025

The school's safeguarding arrangements are not effective. This places pupils, particularly older pupils, at risk of harm. The school is not clear about the actions taken to keep pupils safe. It does not identify trends in safeguarding incidents to inform its work. Older pupils experience incidents of poor behaviour, which are becoming more frequent. The school is unaware of the extent of this unacceptable behaviour or incidents of bullying. Staff use restraint frequently because they do not have the expertise or support to deal with challenging behaviour. Pupils join the school after having had a challenging experience of education, often with many gaps in their knowledge. All are pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils in the secondary phase do not receive the quality of education they deserve. Teachers' expectations are too low. They do not help pupils gain the knowledge that they need. In the primary phase, pupils learn better as their needs are understood, expectations are higher and learning helps pupils build on their previous knowledge. Older pupils do not study a coherent programme for personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education. They do not learn how to keep themselves safe or about other cultures. Although some pupils benefit from wider opportunities, for example in music, pupils have limited opportunities to develop their interests and talents.

What the school should improve

• The school's approach to safeguarding is ineffective. This places pupils at increased risk of harm. The proprietor must act with urgency to ensure that leaders have the capacity and experience to fulfil their roles with respect to safeguarding, and that the school's arrangements for safeguarding are secure and meet all statutory requirements.
• The school's approach to managing pupils' behaviour is weak and does not respond to their needs. Serious incidents of poor behaviour are too common and frequently escalate. The school must ensure that a consistent approach to managing pupils' behaviour is established and that staff are trained appropriately to deliver this.
• The frequent incidents of restraint are not reviewed in line with the school's behaviour policy. This means that the school does not learn from its use of restraint, which places staff and pupils at risk of injury. The school must ensure that all incidents of restraint are reviewed, risk assessments are updated and that staff have appropriate training on agreed approaches.
• The school does not have a strategic approach to improve pupils' attendance. It does not use part-time timetables appropriately. This means pupils miss valuable learning time and opportunities for personal development. The school should ensure that it adopts a strategic approach to improve attendance, has an accurate understanding of attendance overall and ensures that the inappropriate use of part-time timetables ceases.
• The school's processes for identifying pupils with SEND and meeting their needs are ineffective. This means that teachers are unclear about how to meet pupils' needs so that they can learn and achieve well. The school should ensure it accurately identifies pupils' needs and ensure that staff have the expertise and knowledge required to meet pupils' needs effectively.
• The design of the curriculum in the secondary phase is ineffective. The school has not identified the key knowledge that pupils need to learn, how this builds on what pupils already know from the primary phase and the order in which this knowledge should be taught. The school should ensure the curriculum in the secondary phase identifies the important subject knowledge that pupils need to learn and sequence this in a way that builds on pupils' previous learning.
• The school's approach to assessment is ineffective and does not identify the gaps in pupils' knowledge. This means that the gaps in pupils' understanding persist, and teachers do not adapt their teaching to address these gaps. The school should ensure that teachers use assessment effectively to identify gaps in pupils' knowledge and adapt their teaching accordingly.
• The school does not have a coherent programme for pupils' personal development, including their entitlement to PSHE and careers education, advice and guidance. This means that pupils are ill-prepared for the next stage in their education, employment or training and for life beyond school. The school should devise and implement a coherently planned programme for pupils' personal development.
• The proprietor and those responsible for governance have not addressed the decline in the quality of provision or ensured that the school meets the standards consistently. This means there are multiple failings across the provision, including the school's duty under the Equality Act 2010. The proprietor should ensure that they, those responsible for governance and school leaders have the knowledge, expertise and oversight required to ensure that the school meets the standards and fulfils its statutory duties, including in relation to safeguarding and the Equality Act 2010.

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