Ringwood Waldorf School

Overview: Ringwood Waldorf School is a good school that provides a nurturing environment where pupils learn to be thoughtful individuals who contribute to their community and the wider world. The school's core value of 'we cultivate the environment where each child can truly thrive' is reflected in the warm and nurturing relationships between staff and pupils. Pupils are happy and safe, and they are extremely proud of their school and attend regularly.

Strengths:

• Pupils' behaviour is exceptional in lessons and during social times.
• Pupils demonstrate high levels of kindness towards one another, showing tolerance and empathy.
• The school has high expectations for its pupils' achievements, and pupils are keen to learn and typically achieve well.
• The provision for pupils' wider development is well considered, with a wealth of opportunities on offer such as blacksmithing, printmaking, and pottery.
• The school has a personal, social, health and education programme securely in place, teaching pupils how to respect each other and the importance of maintaining healthy relationships.

Areas to improve:

• The school's approach to checking on pupils' learning to see if they are ready to move on to harder work is not consistently effective, which can slow the depth of knowledge that pupils gain.
• The school does not routinely adapt learning sufficiently to meet the needs of pupils with SEND, resulting in some pupils not learning as well as they could.
• The ongoing assessment strategies are not consistently effective in identifying when some pupils are ready to move on in their learning.

Safeguarding: The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.