The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the previous inspection. Your ambition for all pupils to succeed now and in their young adult lives is shared by leaders, staff and governors alike. Recently, the school community has experienced a difficult time. A period of interim leadership followed the unexpected death of the previous headteacher. Due largely to your drive and determination throughout this time, staff remained focused on meeting the social, emotional and academic needs of the pupils. You lead a complex school, providing education for pupils with a broad range of needs. Pupils join your school at different ages and points in the school year. Irrespective of when they start, pupils make good progress from that point. This is because leaders have developed an effective multi-disciplinary team approach to teaching and learning. This provides holistically for pupils’ physical, social, emotional and educational needs. Senior leaders have an accurate understanding of the quality of teaching and learning. They are mindful of the particular challenges of planning to meet both pupils’ academic and therapeutic needs. They provide high-quality professional development. This supports staff well in developing relevant skills and knowledge. Staff feel valued and appreciated. They are proud to be part of the school community. You and other leaders have rightly identified the need to further improve and embed assessment systems to support pupils’ learning. Governors fulfil their strategic role effectively. They are well informed about pupils’ progress, their safety and well-being. Leaders provide governors with detailed, analytical reports. Governors’ visits help them to see how leaders are carrying out their responsibilities and how pupils are doing. Safeguarding is effective. Leaders and staff are vigilant. They are very aware of the pupils’ vulnerabilities and work well as a team to keep them safe from harm. Staff and governors receive training that is current and relevant. They are well informed about new legislation. They know what to do if they have any concerns about a pupil. One member of staff told me that ‘Safeguarding is embedded in everything we do.’ Leaders are aware of the increased risk to pupils when using electronic communication aids and apps. To minimise risk, leaders provide training for pupils, parents and carers to support safe internet use. Pupils are aware of the risks they may encounter and they know what to do if they have a worry. Parents are reassured about their child’s safety, both online and at school. Leaders support pupils well in developing their awareness of personal safety. Pupils know that the colour-coded lanyard system supports them in keeping safe. One pupil told me that ‘red means they haven’t been through their safety check’. Pupils feel safe. They told inspectors that bullying does not happen in their school. They said that they would speak to a teacher if they had any worries or concerns. Governors are tenacious in managing their safeguarding responsibilities. They receive relevant information that tells them about the school’s current priorities. They follow up reports from the headteacher with visits to the school to see safeguarding work in action. Inspection findings We agreed to focus on three areas which you identified as demonstrating the impact of your work since the previous inspection. First, we considered how well leaders use the agreed assessment systems to secure strong progress for pupils. Leaders have prioritised improvements to assessment in their development plan. The framework for the curriculum is strong and distinctive. Leaders took the decision to create the three possible pathways for learning. They make sure that pupils experience the right pathway and that work supports their learning as well as their social and emotional needs. Learning observed across the school exemplified this well. The youngest pupils enjoyed listening to the story ‘The train ride’. They joined in with gusto because of the way in which the teacher brought the story to life. Out of her special bag came a toy train, a torch, a balloon and even grandma’s hat. Pupils took turns to hold and feel these objects. This helped them to recall characters and events in the story.