Breckenbrough School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils and parents are overwhelmingly positive about the support and care that the school provides. They especially praise the way that pupils are treated as individuals. One parent echoed the positive views of all who completed the survey, commenting: 'There are not enough superlatives to describe the brilliance of Breckenbrough and how much of a difference the staff and the ethos of the school have made.'



Leaders go the extra mile to make sure pupils' day-to-day experiences of school are as stress-free as possible. However, their academic expectations of pupils are not always high enough. In some classes, pupils do not always have the prior knowledge they need to ...complete tasks.

This includes comprehending what they read.

The school's extensive grounds provide peaceful spaces for pupils to reflect as well as to socialise. Pupils benefit from the time staff take to talk with them, explaining how the world works and how to manage situations that cause them anxiety.

The safe and nurturing environment helps pupils to behave well. Bullying is very rare. If pupils say or do anything unkind, staff make sure that pupils understand the impact on others.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Leaders, teachers, and staff are highly focused on developing pupils' life skills and resilience. Since the previous inspection, leaders have improved some areas of the school. For example, pupils' attendance has risen.

The range and number of key stage 4 qualifications that pupils take has improved. However, recent improvements to the curriculum, teaching and assessment are not bedded in. The quality of education is not strong.

Governors do not place enough emphasis on the quality of the curriculum in the checks they undertake. They provide support for school leaders but have not challenged them sufficiently about the quality of education in the school.

The reading curriculum is not well developed.

In primary, pupils do not gain the knowledge that they need to make sense of what they read. This includes vocabulary knowledge and knowledge about how writers make descriptions come to life. This means that some pupils struggle with the more complex texts that they read in key stage 3.

In addition, leaders have not developed reading for pleasure and independent reading across the school well enough.

Senior leaders have worked with subject leaders to strengthen their skills in developing the curriculum, teaching, and assessment in the subjects they manage. Some subject leaders have become more adept in this aspect of their role.

For example, the history subject leader has introduced new approaches for teaching the Russian Revolution. However, in some subjects, leaders have not developed teaching methods well. This means that pupils do not gain and remember important subject-specific knowledge.

The curriculum and teaching in the sixth form are stronger than in primary, and key stages 3 and 4. Sixth-form students benefit from the subject knowledge and scholarship that their teachers have. Teachers provide students with individual guidance and feedback.

Teachers check that students can apply the concepts that they have explained to them. Students achieve highly in the subjects they study in the sixth form. This helps them to move on to their next steps.

The outreach team assist older pupils well in attending college courses. They also make sure that any work experience runs smoothly. This includes accompanying pupils to meet employers.

There is a separate programme in place for older pupils. This programme focuses on knowledge and skills for independent living. Pupils find individual careers advice helpful.

Pupils receive a wide range of extra help, such as occupational therapy. Leaders with responsibility for special educational needs and/or disabilities monitor the impact of this extra help. In some subjects, the curriculum has been adapted to better meet pupils' needs, but this has not always worked well.

These changes have led to curriculum content in some subjects becoming too unambitious. Whole-school approaches to support pupils who struggle with communication are not fully in place.

Pupils' behaviour has improved.

The number of serious behaviour incidents has reduced. Leaders provide pupils who struggle to manage their behaviour with a raft of support to help them to do so. Staff take time to explain how pupils' behaviour affects others around them.

The culture of tolerance and forgiveness helps pupils to develop positive attitudes to others. To meet pupils' individual behavioural and emotional needs, leaders have assigned a key worker and mentor to work with the pupils. Mentors and key workers also promote pupils' spiritual, moral, social, and cultural education.

Personal development is strong. The school provides effective individual guidance and support for pupils. This helps pupils in key stages 3 and 4 to stay on track and transition to post-16 education or training.

All pupils take part in a wide range of outdoor education activities, such as rock climbing, canoeing, and caving. Outdoor education leaders ensure that activities develop pupils' confidence, determination, and ability to work with others. The personal development curriculum enables pupils to learn about how to have healthy relationships.

This includes exploring consent and sexual harassment.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The designated safeguarding lead has a very well-developed knowledge of the specific risks that relate to pupils in the school.

He has rightly identified that most pupils are vulnerable to being groomed online. The school has sensibly invested in additional training on online safety for staff. Key workers assigned to pupils play a crucial role in keeping pupils safe.

They take time to explain to pupils about the risks they may face.

The designated safeguarding lead knows each pupil very well. Staff keep careful records when concerns are raised.

Designated leaders ensure that pupils that they refer to local welfare services receive the help they need.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The teaching of reading in the primary phase does not enable pupils to develop their reading knowledge and skills well enough. This means that pupils struggle to read and interpret the whole literary texts that are included in the key stage 3 English curriculum.

The reading curriculum in primary needs to develop so that it enables pupils to gain the knowledge they need to read texts fluently and with understanding. It should also better promote reading independently and for pleasure. ? In some subjects, teaching does not consistently enable pupils to learn the taught curriculum.

Senior leaders need to make sure that subject leaders have sufficient expertise in subject-specific teaching methods and how best to implement them. Subject leaders need to work more closely with the subject teachers they manage so that they fully understand agreed approaches. They should also check that they are being implemented consistently.

• Leaders have adjusted the curriculum to support pupils' specific needs. In doing so, they have lessened their expectations of what pupils should learn and remember. As a result, pupils do not achieve as well as they could.

Leaders responsible for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities should work more closely with subject leaders. Together, they should focus on adapting teaching approaches, so that they are suitable, rather than changing the content of the curriculum. They should also make sure that agreed whole-school approaches to developing communication are implemented.

• There is not sufficient educational expertise on the governing body. This means that despite the governing bodies best efforts, they have not got a deep enough understanding of the strengths and weakness in the quality of education. Governors should develop further expertise to enable them to effectively hold school leaders to account for the quality of education in the school.