Aurora Chaldon School

Strengths

• Provides a warm, welcoming and inclusive community where pupils feel they belong.
• Strong pastoral care and therapeutic support that pupils can readily access.
• Attendance is improving through targeted work with pupils and families.
• Behaviour is typically positive, with a calm and orderly learning environment.
• An effective, embedded behaviour policy has contributed to falling suspensions.
• A coherent PSHE curriculum is matched to pupils' individual social and emotional needs.
• Careers education and preparation for adulthood are well established, including life skills.
• Pupils benefit from a broad range of activities, trips, sports, music and cultural opportunities.
• Safeguarding standards are met, with an open culture and swift action on concerns.
• Leaders accurately evaluate the school's strengths and priorities, and governance validates information effectively.
• Support for pupils attending alternative provision or known to social care is effective.

Areas for Improvement

• Academic progress is variable across the curriculum.
• Pupils at the earliest stages of reading, writing and mathematics do not receive precise enough support.
• Learning activities are not routinely adjusted to pupils' needs, limiting access to the full curriculum.
• Assessment does not consistently identify pupils' next steps in learning.
• The curriculum is not taught as intended in some subjects because teachers' understanding of next academic steps is inconsistent.
• Inclusion systems for academic needs are new and have not closed knowledge gaps quickly enough.
• Leadership has not focused sufficiently on effective teaching and learning.
• Independent school standards for quality of education and leadership/management are not met.
• High staff turnover in the school's first year has affected consistency.
• Governance monitoring needs additional rigor to accelerate improvement in the quality of education.
• Some elements of Part 1 of the independent school standards are not met.

• Primary Schools
• Secondary Schools