Fosse Way School, Bath

Ofsted's report card from its 20 January 2026 inspection grades Fosse Way School on 8 areas: 4 strong standard, 3 expected standard and 1 needs attention. Report cards replaced single-word judgements in November 2025, on a five-point scale from exceptional to urgent improvement.

Attendance and behaviour - Strong standard. "Leaders work highly effectively with pupils, families, external agencies and a range of highly skilled staff, including therapists, to ensure that the school's attendance strategy is highly successful, and it is."

Inclusion - Strong standard. "Leaders' highly ambitious inclusion strategy sits at the heart of the school's work."

Personal development and wellbeing - Strong standard. "The school's extensive pastoral support is embedded extremely well into all aspects of everyday life."

Post 16 provision - Strong standard. "The school has very high expectations for students in the sixth form."

Achievement - Expected standard. "Leaders and staff have an unequivocal focus to prepare pupils for adulthood and ensure that pupils are ready for their next stage by the time they leave."

Curriculum and teaching - Expected standard. "The curriculum includes a suitable range of subjects."

Leadership and governance - Expected standard. "Leaders, including the academy committee, understand the school's strengths very well."

Early years - Needs attention. "Leaders understand what needs to improve in the early years."

Safeguarding standards were met.

Ofsted's next steps for the school: "Leaders should continue to improve the quality of provision for children in the early years so that teaching and the curriculum prepares children for the next stage of their education by ensuring that: the curriculum and teaching is sufficiently focused on the prime areas of learning; the learning environment supports children's development effectively, and that staff use it effectively; staff have the expert subject knowledge they need to deliver the curriculum consistently well; and staff understand how to, and do, provide children with high-quality and meaningful interactions and enough opportunity to practise new learning"; "Leaders should ensure that across all curriculum pathways, sequences of work and high-quality assessment enable teaching to consistently build on what pupils know already so that pupils master curriculum content consistently well and achieve highly across the curriculum over time".

The nearest other special schools to Fosse Way School are Finding Futures (under 0.1 miles); The Universal Farm (0.7 miles); and Newbury Manor School (2.7 miles, Good).

Fosse Way School is one of 17 schools run by The Partnership Trust, an academy trust.

44 parents answered Ofsted's Parent View survey about Fosse Way School (as of April 2026): 77% would recommend the school, 73% say their child is happy there and 18% of those with a view say bullying is dealt with well.

The strongest agreement was that they would recommend the school (77%); the weakest, that the school deals with bullying well (among parents with a view) (18%).

Of the 22 pupils who finished Year 11 in 2023/24, 100% stayed in education or training for at least two terms, including 23% to a further education college.

49.6% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, and 3.4% speak English as an additional language, according to the 2026 school census.

The largest ethnic groups are White British (78%) and Mixed (8%).

Almost every pupil at Fosse Way School has an education, health and care plan (232 of 232 in 2026). The most common need among them is autism.

Fosse Way School provides for pupils with autism and moderate learning difficulties.

There is no railway, tram or Underground station within about three miles of Fosse Way School.

8 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Fosse Way School (se-bound), 50 metres away.

In 2024/25, Fosse Way School issued 30 suspensions, 13.4 for every 100 pupils, and no permanent exclusions.