Michael Hall School

Overview: Michael Hall School meets all of the independent school standards checked during this inspection. The school has prioritised developing its personal, social and health education (PSHE) and relationships and sex education and health education curriculum, and has implemented a new drugs misuse policy. Staff are positive about the leadership of the school and feel well supported to enact school policies accurately.

Strengths:

• Leaders have a secure understanding of policies and procedures in relation to whistleblowing, safeguarding and safer recruitment.
• Staff are positive about the leadership of the school and feel well supported to enact school policies accurately.
• The school has prioritised developing its PSHE and relationships and sex education and health education curriculum.
• Staff are trained to understand how to raise concerns and why this is important.
• The school's ethos is that any physical intervention of pupils is used as a last resort and only when there are concerns about safety.

Areas to improve:

• The school is developing its oversight of the curriculum, particularly in the lower school.
• The school is exploring possibilities about refreshing its approach to physical intervention, with an emphasis on de-escalation and removing the need for any physical intervention.
• The Early Childhood area for recording concerns is not as robust as elsewhere in the school, but this does not put pupils at risk from harm.

Safeguarding: The school has a secure understanding of policies and procedures in relation to whistleblowing, safeguarding and safer recruitment, and staff are trained to understand how to raise concerns and why this is important.