Daventry Hill School

Overview

Pupils enjoy attending this ‘much improved’ special school, where staff are ‘very caring and supportive’. Leaders have high expectations, ensuring pupils are ‘ready for the community and the community to be ready for their pupils’. The school has moved from a previous inadequate rating, with inspectors noting that it ‘no longer requires significant improvement’.

Strengths

• Relationships between staff and pupils are ‘very positive’, with staff skilled at meeting individual needs and helping pupils manage emotions.
• The early years provision is ‘Outstanding’, featuring an ‘exceptional curriculum’ where adults ‘skilfully guide children to learn through play’.
• Pupils on specific pathways benefit from a ‘very well-structured mathematics curriculum’ and an ‘excellent employability curriculum’.
• Older pupils and sixth-form students access ‘excellent’ work-related learning, including running the school café and gaining accreditation.
• Staff are ‘well trained to recognise any signs that might cause concern’, contributing to a ‘strong culture of safeguarding’.

Areas to improve

• Leaders must complete the process of reviewing the curriculum in all subjects to ensure it is ‘sufficiently well planned and sequenced’.
• The personal development curriculum lacks explicit identification of key knowledge regarding ‘fundamental British values’, meaning pupils ‘fail to retain the important knowledge’ these activities provide.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective, with clear records and staff who ‘closely monitor behavioural changes in any non-verbal pupils to identify any early indicators of concern’.