Pollyteach Limited, Mansfield

Ofsted's report card from its 7 July 2026 inspection grades Pollyteach Limited on 6 areas: 6 expected standard. Report cards replaced single-word judgements in November 2025, on a five-point scale from exceptional to urgent improvement.

Achievement - Expected standard. "Pupils make steady progress from their starting points."

Attendance and behaviour - Expected standard. "Leaders clearly communicate to pupils that they expect them to attend school regularly."

Curriculum and teaching - Expected standard. "The school has developed a broad and ambitious curriculum that is designed with the school's context in mind."

Inclusion - Expected standard. "Pupils have a range of special educational needs and/or disabilities and face other personal challenges that means they have found it hard to engage in mainstream education."

Leadership and governance - Expected standard. "The current leadership team was established at the start of this school year."

Personal development and wellbeing - Expected standard. "The school's key purpose is to prepare pupils for adulthood."

Safeguarding standards were met.

Ofsted's next steps for the school: "Leaders should ensure that the key knowledge pupils need to acquire is identified with the same degree of precision across all subjects"; "Leaders should ensure that staff use assessment information to provide learning activities or additional support to rapidly close gaps in pupils' learning and accelerate the progress that pupils make"; "Leaders should ensure that pupils demonstrate a deeper understanding of aspects of the personal, social and health education curriculum".

In its own words: "We are a safe and happy independent school, based in the heart of Sherwood Forest as part of Portland College. We have expertise in engaging neurodivergent children aged 8-16 (e.g. those with autism, ADHD or Pathological Demand Avoidance) and those with high anxiety (often labelled as anxiety-based school refusal) to come into school and to return to learning."

From the headteacher's welcome: "We’re so proud to offer a safe, nurturing, and inclusive space where children aged 8-16 with a variety of special educational needs and learning disabilities can truly thrive."

The nearest other special schools to Pollyteach Limited are Portland College (0.1 miles, Outstanding); Fountaindale School (0.3 miles); Dawn House School (2.4 miles, Outstanding); and Bracken Hill School (2.5 miles).

Almost every pupil at Pollyteach Limited has an education, health and care plan (10 of 10 in 2026).

The nearest railway station is Mansfield Rail Station, about 2.6 miles away in a straight line.

3 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Portland College (adjacent), 230 metres away.

Measured by the 2025 English Indices of Deprivation, the neighbourhood Pollyteach Limited stands in is among the 20% least deprived neighbourhoods in England. This describes where the school is, not where its pupils live.

In August 2026, police recorded 5 crimes within a mile of the school, most often anti-social behaviour, violence and sexual offences and criminal damage and arson. That is well below the typical figure around schools in Nottinghamshire (101).