Portfield School

Overview

Portfield School has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection. The report describes a calm learning environment where pupils develop strong communication skills through personalised curriculums and nurturing relationships. Staff and parents are overwhelmingly positive about the provision, which prepares students well for adulthood.

Strengths

• Pupils develop "strong language and communications skills" using a breadth of approaches including signing and visual symbols.
• Relationships are "nurturing and supportive," with one student noting that "the staff are like family."
• The curriculum meets social, emotional, sensory and learning needs, helping pupils "focus and engage with learning well."
• Staff provide "bespoke support" for reading, enabling pupils to read with "fluency and understanding."
• A "well-structured careers programme" immerses students in the local community, such as work experience in cafés.

Areas to improve

• The curriculum is not "sufficiently broad and challenging" for a small number of pupils with strong literacy and numeracy skills.
• These pupils lack opportunities to "apply their literacy and numeracy skills in a range of subject areas."
• The school should ensure this cohort studies a "broad and ambitious subject curriculum" to gain qualifications they could achieve.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.