Pield Heath House RC School

Overview

Leaders and staff strive to support all pupils to reach their potential, helping them gain the tools needed for successful adult lives. The school fosters a strong sense of community and belonging, with pupils enjoying coming to school and building trusting relationships with adults. Teaching, therapeutic, and behavioural teams work in tandem to meet pupils’ bespoke goals, ensuring they feel safe and secure.

Strengths

• Leaders have reviewed and improved the curriculum, introducing three ‘curriculum pathways’ that cater to differences in pupils’ cognitive abilities and build knowledge logically.
• Staff place a strong emphasis on developing communication skills, working hand in hand with speech and language therapists to ensure pupils’ understanding develops securely.
• Pupils benefit from opportunities that support personal development, such as electing a school council and engaging in community projects and enterprise skills.
• Staff provide effective careers guidance, creating bespoke career pathways and offering work experience to prepare students well for the next phase of their lives.
• Staff are skilled in recognising when pupils’ anxiety levels are rising and use effective strategies to help them calm down and settle back to work.

Areas to improve

• Not enough staff have the expertise to deliver the phonics programme effectively, and books used for practice are sometimes not closely matched to the sounds pupils know.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective, with staff vigilant in reporting concerns and working with agencies to secure early help and support.