Ellesmere College

Overview: Ellesmere College is a special school for children and young people with complex learning difficulties, including autism and speech, language and communication difficulties. The school provides a calm and orderly environment where staff know pupils well and respond quickly to their needs. Pupils are supported to develop communication skills, manage their emotions and build positive relationships with others.

Strengths:

• Attendance reflects the complexity of pupils' needs, and leaders understand these challenges very well.
• Behaviour is a clear strength of the school, with pupils behaving very well and feeling safe.
• Inclusion is a clear strength of the school, with staff knowing pupils and their families in depth and understanding the complex circumstances that can affect many pupils' learning and wellbeing.
• The post-16 provision is of high quality, with leaders offering a range of well-matched pathways that reflect students' needs, aspirations and readiness for independence.
• Careers education is a strength in the secondary and post-16 phases, with pupils receiving appropriate guidance, work-related learning and support to help them prepare for their next steps.

Areas to improve:

• Leaders should strengthen curriculum sequencing, particularly in the 'Thrive' pathway, so that staff can clearly identify what pupils should learn, when knowledge is secured and how learning builds cumulatively beyond their individual targets.
• Leaders should ensure that teaching challenges pupils, so those who are ready to move on in their learning do so promptly.
• Leaders should clarify subject-specific starting points and progress measures, particularly in English and mathematics, so they can evaluate securely whether 'Thrive' pupils know more, remember more and can do more over time.

Safeguarding: The safeguarding standards are met, with leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfilling their specific responsibilities and having established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed.