The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Since the last inspection, you have worked hard to ensure that leaders and staff focus their work on improving the outcomes for pupils. You have used innovative approaches to help support the challenges your pupils face. You are tireless in your resolve to ensure that every pupil who attends Haywood Grove has the skills needed for the next stage of their education. The school has taken appropriate action to tackle the areas for improvement identified at the last inspection. Pupils try their best and are enthusiastic to share their work with others. They are rightly proud of their achievements. Most pupils have had a difficult time in their education before coming to Haywood Grove. Here, they develop a sense of how they can manage the social and emotional challenges they have. This is a distinct culture that you and your leadership team have developed. You have created a safe school in which pupils can thrive. Under your leadership, the pupils learn the skills they need to cooperate and build relationships with each other, staff and visitors. One staff member said, ‘The capacity to learn and grow is immeasurable, in a culture of support’. Leaders, teachers and the pupils themselves understand that lessons are matched to pupils’ specific needs and interests. Lessons are engaging, creating a dynamic learning environment. During the inspection, you could clearly show the deep thought and planning you put into each pupil’s curriculum. Class sizes were varied, teaching styles were varied and the subjects being covered were extensive and well planned. You and your staff are passionate about recording pupils’ progress and the approaches that work best for individual pupils. This information is linked thoughtfully into strategies and skills that support pupils to move on to the next stage in their learning or to their next educational setting. Leaders spoke with deep knowledge about what was being done to overcome and limit each pupil’s barriers to learning. Your leadership team, and more recently governors, have an accurate picture of the strengths of the school and what needs to be improved. You have increased the depth and accuracy of information available to leaders, through a range of new procedures to check on the quality and effectiveness of the school’s work. One of these measures tracks both academic attainment and the pupils’ ability to manage their social and emotional responses. However, some of these new procedures need to be sharpened and embedded further. You are dogged in your determination to improve attendance. Leaders were able to present accurate records showing the care and consideration taken to try to achieve the best outcomes for pupils. This included the occasions where pupils have had time out of school and you have worked diligently to ensure a successful reintegration. You have invested heavily in training for your staff to develop aspects of the curriculum and make it more accessible to pupils. Staff talk of ‘a culture of support’ where ‘we are all listened to’. One member of staff explained to inspectors that leaders ‘always want to give the staff opportunities’. Your governors are embracing these changes. They have developed a clearer view of how they are perceived by the community. You are working hard with them to ensure that they have the right mix of skills to aid the school’s progress in the future. Governors find your reports to the governing body to be informative and the chair of governors talks openly of the real improvements over recent years. These include staff and pupil relationships, how the staff manage physical behaviours and the focus of support for pupils to manage their emotions. While governors are aware of the speed of change, they spoke of how they need to have further training with leaders on some of the new processes and procedures used in school. Safeguarding is effective. Safeguarding is a priority for the whole community and this reflects the specific needs of pupils and their families. Safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose, and records are detailed and of a high quality. Leaders keep staff up to date about safeguarding matters through a regular programme of training, updates and reminders. All staff have received training across a range of safeguarding and child protection issues. Staff understand what to do if they have any concerns that a pupil is at risk. Parents and pupils are aware of the work the school does to keep its pupils safe. Pupils are confident that staff look after them well. They say they feel safe and know how to seek help from staff when needed. You undertake appropriate checks on staff who are in your employment. However, we identified during the inspection that there has not been enough quality assurance or review of the recording and administration of staff recruitment. As a result, records are not always well maintained or easily checked. Where parents and carers raise concerns or have the need to make complaints, inspectors were able to see accurate records for each issue. This included all work, response and actions by multi-agency partners. The outcomes reached were shared appropriately with those families. Inspection findings At the start of the inspection, we agreed to look at three lines of enquiry. The first line of enquiry looked at how well leaders and staff support pupils’ individual needs and improve their attendance, given their significant vulnerabilities. Attendance is currently close to the national average. However, there has been a variation and recent spike in fixed-term exclusions. Leaders and governors are clear about the specific reasons for this. You were also able to show how these exclusions are on a downward trend, even with the numbers on the roll growing.