Hope Tree School in Impington, which teaches autistic girls, has been given an Ofsted rating of ‘requires improvement’ after its first inspection in November last year.
The school, located on Manor Farm on the outskirts of Impington, was inspected between 22-24 November 2022, just 15 teaching weeks after becoming operational, despite Ofsted guidance suggesting an inspection was unlikely to happen for approximately 12 months.
The full Ofsted report, which has been seen by HI HUB, rated the the school’s overall effectiveness as ‘requires improvement’, with the category of quality of education, also rated as ‘requires improvement’. Other categories of behaviour and attitudes; personal development; and leadership and management were all rated ‘good’. The school was also found to have met Ofsted’s standard for independent schools.
Ofsted found ‘the curriculum does not provide all the specific information that staff require to meet pupils’ complex needs’ and that, as a result, ‘pupils do not progress as quickly as they should’. The report also states that, ‘teachers do not have all the information they need to deliver leaders’ subject plans well’, adding that ‘where subject knowledge is not as strong, some key content of the curriculum is not taught well’. The school has just one full-time teacher, Rebecca Sands, who is also Head of Learning and co-founder of the school with Fiona D’Arcy.
Staff share disappointment
Responding to the report, Fiona D’Arcy, the school’s Head of Pastoral care, told HI HUB, “It is a shame and we are disappointed. Not necessarily with ourselves but with a system that does not consider how long a school has been operational but only when the computer says a school must be inspected. As it turned out quite a lot of what we had done in those 15 weeks did, in fact, meet the criteria in three out of four of Ofsted’s categories. In fact, three ‘goods’ after only 15 weeks is something to be very proud of.”
The report does acknowledge the school’s short history, noting ‘over a short period, leaders have successfully created a welcoming and safe school environment’. The school’s strengths in other areas were also praised. ‘Staff are caring and take time to understand pupils’ complex social and emotional needs. This helps pupils to feel safe and settled.’ Many of the school’s pupils have had negative experiences of school prior to attending Hope Tree, with some having spent time outside of education.
Students are the priority
Fiona describes meeting the “understandably strict criteria for Quality of Education”, while also reintroducing students to education at their preferred pace and allowing them to develop safe and secure relationships with staff as “an almost impossible task.” She said that by “prioritising students over sequencing the curriculum, by prioritising relationship development over curriculum coverage at that very early stage in our school’s development, it just wasn’t possible to get to that elusive ‘good’ that we would have liked to have.
“It is interesting that Ofsted agreed with our approach and the decisions we had made, however when it comes to criteria – that box didn’t get ticked.”
Ofsted’s views of the school appear not to be shared universally, as one parent, quoted anonymously in the report, said that ‘ “Hope Tree is quite simply amazing in every aspect possible”.’
You can read the full Ofsted report here.