Beechlawn Special School

Overview

The inspection was significantly limited by industrial action, meaning the ETI was “unable to assure parents/carers... of the quality of education being provided.” Consequently, the inspectorate could not evaluate classroom teaching or self-evaluation processes. The school is designated a “high priority for future inspection with no further notice.”

Strengths

• Post-16 provision includes an initiative developing “confidence and entrepreneurial skills,” resulting in “award-winning sensory and eco-friendly products.”
• Support for pupils with ASD includes “two sensory rooms,” “movement breaks,” and a “Makaton choir” which pupils enjoyed.
• Key Stage 4 offers new accredited courses such as “bench joinery” and “motor vehicle studies” reflecting pupil interests.
• Collaborative “shared education” partnerships provide learning experiences in sport, coding, and science.
• Pupils report they “feel safe in the school” and know how to raise safety concerns.

Areas to improve

• The school must “review further the policies for relationships and sexual education and positive behaviour management.”
• The ETI was unable to evaluate “the lines of inquiry” and “the quality of learning and teaching within the classrooms.”

Safeguarding

The report states that safeguarding arrangements “reflect broadly the guidance from the Department of Education,” though the ETI was “unable to evaluate fully the outworking of the arrangements” due to industrial action.