The Pinetree School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 26 September 2023

Pupils arrive at The Pinetree School having had numerous failed educational experiences. All are pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Here, they are supported to get back into school and succeed. Over time, pupils become more motivated and gain the qualifications they need to move on to appropriate college placements at age 16. Pupils have positive relationships with the staff. Pupils feel well supported and understood as individuals. Most are happy and engaged. They talk about how they are succeeding in this school and how the adults are good at helping them with learning. They feel safe. Pupils' work is adapted to meet their own individual needs but is appropriately challenging. Pupils study a curriculum that contains a high focus on academic knowledge, together with work on life skills, developing resilience and tolerance. Behaviour has improved substantially. The need for suspensions has dropped. Pupils describe how their and others' behaviour has improved as they spend more time in the school. However, a minority of pupils are still demonstrating very challenging behaviour and using poor language more than they should.

What the school should improve

• It is not clear enough in all subjects' planning how topics will build year on year for the mixed-age classes. This means that how pupils will build new knowledge on what has come before has not been considered as well as it should have been. The school needs to ensure that it is clearer what pupils will be taught, and when, over an entire key stage.
• Some pupils' behaviour is not yet good enough. They do not meet the school's high expectations or follow rules and routines. As a result, they miss out on some of their learning. The school needs to ensure that the improvements in behaviour for most pupils are also in place for this minority.

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