OFSTED report
The most recent OFSTED inspection was carried out during December 2nd and 3rd 2008. The summary reads as follows:
Overall effectiveness of the school Grade: 1
Bettridge School is outstanding. This is down to the first-class leadership of the headteacher, the strong, effective teamwork of staff and the excellent support and challenge offered by the governing body. Parents praise highly the difference the school makes to their children’s learning and personal development, describing it as ‘a fine school’, ‘excellent in every respect’ and ‘doing wonders’. One parent sums up the views of many others, saying, ‘For my child, with all his needs, to have a place like Bettridge where he spends most of his days and is truly happy, I think the teachers and staff do an exceptional job!’
The school rises to the challenge of the initiatives it undertakes, evaluating meticulously their effectiveness in improving pupils’ progress, so that successes are built on and key priorities for improvement identified accurately. Nowhere is this more evident than in the impact that the school’s specialism has had on improving pupils’ already outstanding achievements and in the exemplary contribution made to community cohesion. First and foremost, pupils’ progress from the children in the EYFS class through to the students in the post-16 unit has accelerated beyond the excellence described at the previous inspection. The school uses all the data available to it, including new national comparisons, to question whether each and every pupil is achieving to their full potential. At the same time, the community plan has had an enormous impact on giving pupils a strong voice in their school and local community, and in helping others, through extensive partnerships, to develop a greater understanding of the needs of those with learning disabilities.
Pupils are superb ambassadors for young people with special needs. Their confident presentation to a large national conference about how Bettridge helps them to be involved in setting and reviewing their own targets for learning is just one example of pupils’ outstanding personal development. Pupils’ outstanding behaviour is remarkable, given the difficulties they have to overcome and the nature of their often complex additional needs. This is a direct result of the excellent care, guidance and support that is provided by the school and the exceptional links with other agencies.
At the very heart of pupils’ academic and personal achievements, and their tremendous enjoyment of school, is the outstanding quality of teaching and learning. Lively and purposeful lessons, work which is well matched to pupils’ differing needs and teachers’ high levels of expertise and knowledge are key to pupils’ success. The curriculum is good and well developed to prepare pupils for the next steps in education and future life. Everyone longs for the completion of the new building, being well aware that the accommodation continues to impose limitations on the teaching of subjects such as information and communication technology (ICT) and on some aspects of pupils’ independent living skills. Even pupils say, ‘Hurry up builders!’ This is a school that thrives on challenge and has its sights clearly set on establishing the very best curriculum once in the new accommodation. It has outstanding capacity to make continued improvement in all aspects of its work.
The full report is available to download as a PDF file.
