Brickyard Barn Outdoor Learning Centre, Mallory Road

What it's like to be a pupil at Brickyard Barn Outdoor Learning Centre

For the pupils at Brickyard Barn Outdoor Learning Centre, school is an inspiring place to attend. The school has rightly prioritised the importance of building positive relationships with pupils once they arrive. This helps pupils to build a sense of safety and trust in their new school. Pupils are safe. Typically, they do their best and behave well. Staff know pupils well, including their individual special educational needs and/or disabilities. Staff welcome pupils with a caring smile. Each day is filled with purpose. Pupils are given the opportunity to develop their awareness of, and understand, how autism affects then. As a result, they know themselves well, feel they belong and thrive. Pupils overcome previous difficult experiences in education, such as ‘noise' in schools, being bullied and not wanting to attend. Pupils say this school has helped them. One pupil, typical of others, said: ‘I have learned to communicate here.' Pupils appreciate the support they get from caring adults who take time to get to know and understand them. The school works in partnership with parents and carers to support pupils to talk about and overcome any barriers to learning. All this helps pupils to achieve success and build their self-esteem, confidence and communication skills. Specialist behaviour support focused on understanding their feelings helps pupils to better regulate their emotions in a calm, therapeutic way. The wider curriculum is broad and varied. Pupils benefit from many different experiences on offer to them. These range from visits into the local community, supporting national charities and raising awareness of autism through the school's vision of making autism ‘our first language'. These opportunities broaden pupils' horizons and experiences.

What Ofsted says the school should do next

• Leaders should strengthen their systems for evaluating the implementation and impact of the school's curriculum and pupils' achievement across both sites of the school, so that they can more accurately and precisely identify areas for development and drive improvement.
• Leaders should ensure that highly effective teaching is embedded across the school so that all pupils can achieve in line with their potential, including through developing greater depth and detail in pupils' written work.
• Leaders should ensure that strong foundations, including reading more often, are embedded so that pupils acquire deeper knowledge and are well prepared for their next steps.
• Leaders should ensure that the impact of the personal development programme, including pupils' learning about careers, is deep, embedded and consistent.

This school excels at helping pupils who have struggled in mainstream education feel safe, valued and confident. Staff are genuinely caring and take time to understand each pupil's individual needs and barriers to learning. The school deliberately builds pupils' communication skills, social confidence and self-esteem through a rich programme of outdoor activities, community visits and leadership opportunities.

Safeguarding standards are met - the school has created an open and positive culture of safeguarding where all legal requirements are met and pupils feel safe.

Garden and allotment activities, autism-focused events, student council, visits to local temples and churches, community engagement with local contractors and charities, driving lessons, music

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