Furrowfield School

Overview

Furrowfield School continues to be a good school, with leaders taking effective action to ensure pupils benefit from a high-quality education following significant change. The report highlights a re-energised staff team working together with high ambition for all pupils, particularly those with social, emotional and mental health needs.

Strengths

• Leaders have improved the curriculum to be broad yet responsive to pupils’ social, emotional and mental health needs, helping them work towards individual targets.
• Relationships between staff and pupils are secure, with most pupils feeling supported, cared for, and happy at school.
• Staff support pupils’ reading effectively through focused lessons, fostering a culture where most pupils engage well and can describe what they have read with clarity.
• Behaviour is generally good, with staff intervening swiftly to calm incidents and using alternative provision thoughtfully to develop resilience and social skills.
• Governors work effectively with leaders to hold them to account, and staff appreciate that their workload and well-being are thoughtfully considered.

Areas to improve

• Leaders have not mapped out the knowledge and skills pupils need to learn consistently well across all subjects, making it difficult for teachers to check what pupils know.
• Leaders should continue to develop the curriculum so teachers have a clear understanding of learning goals in all subjects and support better use of assessment.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective, with efficient procedures, robust checks on adults, and staff who are effectively trained to spot when pupils need support.