Lawrence House School, Liverpool

What it's like to be a pupil at Lawrence House School

Pupils feel unconditionally accepted and valued at this school. Staff carefully construct positive relationships with them. This helps pupils to feel safe, happy and settled. Pupils arrive at this school having experienced fragmented education. They have suffered significant trauma in the past and have large gaps in their learning. All pupils are young people in care who face varied barriers to their learning. Staff are kind, patient and resilient when it comes to understanding pupils' individual needs. This helps pupils to put previous difficulties behind them. Over time, they rebuild their confidence and form positive attitudes to learning. Pupils attend school well. Staff develop pupils' abilities to manage their own behaviour. This means they are ready to learn and can develop respectful relationships with their peers. Bullying is rare. Ultimately, pupils become respectful young people who interact politely with visitors and demonstrate interest and curiosity in the world around them. The school has high expectations of what pupils can achieve. Pupils benefit from an ambitious curriculum that is thoughtfully adapted to their needs and interests. Staff consistently break down barriers to learning so that pupils enjoy lessons and make progress. Older pupils work towards a range of academic and vocational qualifications. They achieve well and are rightly proud of their accomplishments. Pupils are well prepared for further education or moving into the workforce. Pupils benefit hugely from the vast range of activities offered by the school to enrich their learning. Many of these have an outdoor learning focus. For example, pupils make termly residential visits to a farm in South Wales. Here, they participate in activities such as lambing, hiking and raft building. This enables pupils to learn new skills, expand their horizons and strengthen their communication abilities.

What Ofsted says the school should do next

• In some subjects, leaders do not have a precise understanding of pupils' differing starting points. Assessment processes need to be strengthened so that gaps in knowledge are identified promptly, feedback is targeted, and subsequent teaching responds to this information, enabling pupils to move through the curriculum successfully.
• The school should make sure that pupils receive the support they need to develop their writing and produce consistently high-quality written work across all areas of the curriculum.

Lawrence House School excels at helping vulnerable young people in care rebuild their confidence and trust after experiencing trauma. Staff create genuinely caring relationships in a calm, purposeful environment where pupils develop respect for themselves and others. The school offers an ambitious, well-designed curriculum alongside extensive enrichment activities that prepare pupils for qualifications, further education, and employment.

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

Weekly physical education sessions, yearly pride event, theatre trips, museum visits, outdoor learning focus, termly residential visits

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Bus Stops