Riverside School

Overview

Riverside School provides a high-quality education for pupils with complex special educational needs, characterised by strong attendance, behaviour, and personal development. While safeguarding standards are met and pupils feel safe and valued, teaching quality is currently inconsistent across the curriculum.

Strengths

• Attendance is rated at a "Strong standard," with leaders using "highly tailored, timely and appropriate adjustments" to remove barriers for pupils.
• Behaviour is excellent, underpinned by "healthy relationships, clear routines" and pupils demonstrating "growing self-regulation."
• Personal development is robust, with a comprehensive PSHE curriculum and strong pastoral systems ensuring pupils feel "valued" and "safe."
• Inclusion is effective, with leaders working closely with external professionals to ensure "smooth transition" and meet individual needs.
• Pupils are "very well prepared for adulthood," benefiting from a broad curriculum, educational visits, and strong employer links.

Areas to improve

• Leaders must ensure staff have the skills to implement the curriculum "consistently by all staff," as teaching quality currently varies.
• Staff require training to "consistently deliver the school's systematic synthetic phonics programme" so pupils become accurate, fluent readers.

Safeguarding

The safeguarding standards are met, with an "open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility" and concerns actively identified and managed.