Belong School Gloucestershire, Slimbridge

What it's like to be a pupil at Belong School Gloucestershire

Pupils are safe and happy at Belong School. All pupils have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Leaders and staff work determinedly to understand and remove barriers to pupils' attendance, learning and achievement. This work consistently enhances pupils' opportunities and experiences. For example, many pupils have not attended school well previously. As a result of caring relationships and effective work with families, the school helps pupils to attend school more regularly. Pupils enjoy their learning and generally progress well through the curriculum. Leaders and staff understand pupils' needs very well. They provide effective pastoral support. This supports pupils' personal development and wellbeing and provides a firm foundation for them to learn successfully. Pupils enjoy learning the different subjects that they study. For instance, they are keen to improve their cooking skills. The school helps remedy gaps in pupils' important basic skills, such as reading and number. Consequently, pupils are typically able to go on to gain suitable qualifications. Overall, they are prepared well for their next steps in education, employment or training. Pupils behave well. They learn about emotions and how to be respectful of others. Leaders and staff teach pupils the importance of compassion and celebrating differences. Bullying is rare and staff always make sure that they deal with unkindness quickly and effectively. Parents are highly positive about the care and support for their children. Pupils benefit from activities to learn together and to pursue their interests. For example, there are opportunities to develop their skills in sports, computing or traditional crafts. Trips in the local area, and further afield, build pupils' wider knowledge, such as about democracy. Pupils benefit from visits to local post-16 education providers and employers. This helps them, and their families, find out about their different options when they leave the school.

What Ofsted says the school should do next

• Leaders and the proprietor should ensure that the curriculum is of a consistently high quality across all subjects.
• Leaders and the proprietor should ensure that teaching uses assessment effectively to check, and build, on what pupils know, so that they achieve more highly.
• Leaders and the proprietor should ensure that they make continued improvements to achieve and sustain exceptional standards of attendance and behaviour.
• Leaders and the proprietor should strengthen the tracking of pupils' personal development experiences, to ensure that they provide extensive opportunities to all pupils.

Belong School excels at helping pupils who have previously struggled with attendance to attend regularly through caring relationships and family support. Staff skilfully remove barriers to learning through tailored adaptations and create a respectful, inclusive environment where pupils thrive. The school provides strong pastoral support that builds pupils' resilience and confidence while helping them develop important basic skills needed for their next steps.

Safeguarding standards are met - leaders have established an open culture where safeguarding is everyone's responsibility, concerns are actively identified and acted upon, and pupils feel safe.

Sports, computing, traditional crafts, musical experiences, visits to local arts venues, trips to local area and further afield, visits to places of worship, visits to post-16 education providers and employers

Bus Stops