Portfield School is a happy and successful school where pupils feel safe and thrive. Pupils take great pride in their school and most develop as confident learners who improve their physical and emotional resilience particularly well during their time at the school. Nearly all pupils treat each other with respect and many show extremely caring attitudes and empathy to each other and staff. In relation to their individual needs and abilities, nearly all pupils make strong progress over time against their personal targets. They make particularly effective progress in the development of their independence, communication and social skills. This progress helps them to become more confident learners and promotes their ability to live more independently in the future. Teachers’ planning for the development of these skills is a strength of the school. The school works exceptionally well with the external specialist services available to it to provide an integrated approach to meeting pupils’ needs and to ensure that teachers and learning support staff have the strategies to support pupils’ learning. As a result, the school provides an extremely high level of care, support and guidance. Leaders and staff have established a clear vision for the school that sets high aspirations for the personal development of all pupils and is well understood by all members of the school community. The strength of the school’s ethos and its effective systems for support and care have a very positive impact on outcomes for pupils. Inspection area Judgement Standards Excellent Wellbeing and attitudes to learning Excellent Teaching and learning experiences Good Care, support and guidance Excellent Leadership and management Good 2 A report on Portfield School November 2019 Recommendations R1 Address the health and safety issue identified during the inspection R2 Improve the consistency of teaching and learning support so that all practice matches the best in the school R3 Ensure that quality assurance processes focus clearly on the quality of teaching and the assessment of pupils’ work What happens next The school will draw up an action plan to address the recommendations from the report. Estyn will invite the school to prepare two case studies for dissemination on Estyn’s website on its work in relation to the school’s planning for the development of pupils’ independence skills, and how the school prepares pupils, parents and stakeholders to contribute to person-centred planning