Congratulations to staff and pupils at St Catherine’s school in Ventnor.
Their most recent care report by Ofsted found the school overall to be ‘Good’ with ‘Outstanding’ ratings for ‘Outcomes for residential pupils’ and ‘Quality of residential provision’.
St Catherine’s is a non-maintained residential special school for the education of students aged between seven and 19, who have speech, language and communication needs
Highlights
Some of the highlights from the report include
- Outcomes for students are excellent
- They make progress in all aspects of their lives
- All staff work exceptionally well together
- A highly integrated approach benefits students
- Students make excellent progress in their physical, personal and social development
- There is a culture of safety and the school is not risk averse
- Students are safe and well cared for
- Students enthusiastically engage in a wide range of healthy activities
- The leadership and management of the school are good. The management team set high standards for staff as well as themselves
- The senior management team ensure they have independent critical friends to challenge and inform practice.
Improvements can be made
Despite the fantastic ratings for two areas, the report goes on to say that supervision is provided but inconsistent.
This is raised as a breach of the national minimum standards, so the school is expected to show the following improvements.
- Ensure written records of all safeguarding issues clearly describe the decision-making process underpinning the outcomes.
- Complete the reconfiguration of the dispensary and nurses room.
- All staff have access to support and advice for their role.
- They also have regular supervision and formal annual appraisal of their performance.
Read the inspection report in full (click on the full screen icon to open in a larger window)
