Silverwood School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 3 July 2023

The six values of 'cooperation, courage, honesty, perseverance, respect and kindness' underpin the culture of the school and how pupils and staff go about each and every day. Pupils know the values well. They demonstrate them in their attitudes to learning, interactions with each other and relationships with staff. Pupils value the strong and nurturing relationships that exist between staff and pupils. The three school campuses and satellite classrooms are calm and purposeful places for pupils to learn. A strong focus on pupils' wider development means that they are confident and self- aware. Pupils enjoy school and attend well. Staff have high aspirations for the future of each pupil. They nurture and use their knowledge of pupils to help them overcome significant barriers to learning. This enables pupils to achieve ambitious outcomes at each stage of their education. Pupils have a wide range of opportunities to enrich and extend their learning. For example, through their learning outside the classroom, the Duke of Edinburgh Award and cultural trips. Pupils are prepared well for the next stage in their education and to become active participants in their local community.

What the school should improve

• Leaders have not ensured that there is effective scrutiny of the single central record to ensure that checks on staff are recorded accurately. As a result, there were some administrative errors in the records of checks on staff. Leaders need to ensure that there is an effective and rigorous system in place to maintain accurate safer recruitment records and make sure that practise aligns with policy.
• Staff are not using a total communication approach consistently across the school. At times, communication strategies are used well in lessons and planned interactions were not continued into unstructured time and unplanned incidents. Staff resort to an overuse of verbal and physical prompts. This results in pupils being reliant on adults and not being as independent as they could be. Leaders need to make sure that staff are confident and skilled in using a total communication approach for all pupils in all aspects of their education.
• There is not a wholly consistent approach from staff to meet the high expectations that leaders have for pupils at the school. At times, this means that some pupils do not learn as well as they could. Leaders need to ensure that expectations are communicated effectively so they are fully understood by staff across the school campuses. This will mean that the strong practice seen in some areas is replicated across the school.

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