Mossbrook School

Overview

Mossbrook School continues to be a good school, described as an “inclusive and welcoming” environment where pupils feel safe and supported. Staff know pupils well, fostering strong relationships and helping children make timely progress towards their personal goals. The school provides high ambitions for all pupils, with effective support for personal development and positive behaviour.

Strengths

• Pupils enjoy attending the school, where relationships are “caring and strong” and staff intervene early to help pupils remain calm.
• The ‘engage’ and ‘explorer’ pathways provide positive learning opportunities, particularly for sensory and communication needs, supported by recent work on ‘core vocabulary boards’.
• Staff plan lessons that consider pupils’ additional needs, and pupils mostly enjoy “well-structured lessons”.
• The school promotes personal development effectively through sporting activities, community visits, and access to support programmes for sleep and bereavement.
• Leaders work well with governors, and staff are “overwhelmingly positive” about support for their workload and well-being.

Areas to improve

• The curriculum in the ‘adventurer’ pathway does not always enable all pupils to achieve to the best of their ability, with some not being sufficiently stretched or challenged.
• In some lessons, chosen activities do not closely match what pupils need to learn, leading to work that is too easy or fails to focus on core learning.
• There is inconsistency in how staff use the ‘progression steps’ to assess pupils, meaning some targets are not sharp enough to ensure high achievement.

Safeguarding

The report states that “the arrangements for safeguarding are effective.”