Dee Banks School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve teaching, learning and assessment so they lead to exemplary outcomes for pupils by:
  • ensuring that pupils are consistently provided with work that stretches them to do their best
  • providing staff with even more effective professional development that is bespoke to their needs
  • sharing the skills of the school’s best teachers more widely across the school.
• Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management by ensuring that:
  • leadership in the early years foundation stage is sharpened so that effective actions raise standards and accelerate children’s achievement
  • systems for holding staff to account for pupils’ performance help to raise standards across the school
  • the school environment and accommodation consistently support high-quality teaching and learning.
• Improve pupils’ phonic development and their reading skills by:
  • ensuring that senior leaders monitor and evaluate the strategies used to develop pupils’ reading skills across the school
  • providing identified staff with further training on how to successfully teach phonics so that pupils’ progress in reading accelerates.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

Governance of the school

Safeguarding

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

Personal development, behaviour and welfare

Personal development and welfare

Good

• All staff take great care in ensuring that pupils are well cared for. The pupils are well supervised at all times of the day, from their arrival to leaving. A high adult presence maintains pupils’ safety and welfare when pupils are not in the classroom. Pupils with medical needs are looked after exceptionally well, with clear support plans that are reflective of their needs. Adults manage the pupils’ care effectively, for instance in moving and hoisting pupils who have severe and physical disabilities. Risk assessments for all aspects of the pupils’ care are thorough and very well monitored.
• Pupils say that they feel safe and can explain how they have been taught about the safety of travel and strategies to stay safe in various situations. Leaders have ensured that the curriculum teaches pupils about body awareness and the concept of privacy. Bullying is not an issue and this was confirmed by school records and also when inspectors met with the school council.
• The school tries very hard to help pupils to recognise risky situations in the community and to understand how to deal with potential dangers. For instance, inspectors spoke to the student council and its members revealed that the school does a significant amount of work in alerting pupils to the risk of inappropriate use of the internet and social media.

Behaviour

Outcomes for pupils Good

Early years provision Requires improvement

• Since the last inspection, leadership of the early years foundation stage has altered and children are now not achieving as well as they once did. Current leadership of the provision has not ensured rigorous monitoring of teaching and learning. There are not sufficiently high expectations for children and staff. Consequently, not all children make the progress that they should.
• Senior leaders have ensured that children’s outcomes are moderated with those of other schools to ensure the accuracy of teachers’ judgements. Some staff check children’s learning routinely and they are adept at recording small steps of progress. These teachers adapt activities quickly in response to these achievements and so children are always presented with appropriate challenge. Inspectors saw this approach used by teachers of children who have profound and multiple learning difficulties. The early years leader has not ensured that the best practice is shared across the provision.
• Systems to monitor and check staff performance are not sharp enough. As a result, the early years leader has an over-inflated view of teaching and learning and has not addressed some areas for improvement. Staff are not always provided with professional development that matches their needs.
• Children’s development needs are not always highly supported. Some resources need refreshing to support and ignite children’s learning.
• Reading and phonics are not well planned to ensure that all staff use the same effective strategies. The best practice in phonics and reading is not widely shared across the provision. As a result, not all children are well supported to improve their reading.
• Children enter Reception with starting points that are extremely below what is typical for their age due to their varied and complex learning needs. Staff ensure that children have individual learning programmes that detail how the provision intends to support their learning and personal development. Most children make the small steps expected towards their learning goals. Senior leaders ensure that additional funding is used well to support children in their development.
• Staff are vigilant in ensuring that children play and learn in a safe environment. Staff are skilled in paediatric first aid and have clear protocols in place for the use of mobile phones.
• Partnerships with parents and carers are a strength. Communication is frequent and children’s work that is sent home is much appreciated by families. Good links with children’s families enable staff to get a rounded picture of each child’s needs prior to entering the setting.

16 to 19 study programmes Good

School details

Unique reference number 111494 Local authority Cheshire West and Chester Inspection number 10001394 This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act. Type of school Special School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Gender of pupils in 16 to 19 study programmes Number of pupils on the school roll Of which, number on roll in 16 to 19 study programmes Community special 2 to 19 Mixed Mixed 110 18 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Dr Rosie Beach Mrs Judith McGuinness Telephone number 01244 981030 Website Email address www.deebanksschool.co.uk head@deebanks.cheshire.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 18–19 October 2011

Information about this school

• Dee Banks is a special school for children and young people between the ages of two and 19 who have severe and complex special educational needs and/or disabilities.
• The majority of pupils have one of three conditions: profound and multiple learning difficulties; severe learning difficulties; or autism spectrum disorder. However, several pupils have learning difficulties across these categories and/or other conditions, such as a physical disability.
• There are significantly more boys on roll than girls and nearly all pupils are of White British heritage. The percentage of pupils from minority ethnic groups is much lower than the average nationally.
• The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for the pupil premium (additional government funding) is below the national average.
• Some pupils generally live within Cheshire West and Chester, although a greater number travel from neighbouring local authorities.
• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.

Information about this inspection

Inspection team

Dawn Platt, lead inspector Lisa Morgan Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector