Special school rated 'requires improvement' by Ofsted

Brantridge School, in Staplefield, was rated 'good' in January 2015, but the latest findings said changes in senior leadership positions, coupled with poor governance, had led to a decline in standards.

Since 2015, the school has seen two headteachers leave, but the work of the current interim head – Angela Drayton – and her team has been praised.

In their report, inspectors Matthew Barnes and Clare Gillies said the new team had made “a significant impact” on the school in a very short amount of time, with staff “fully behind the high expectations that are now being set”.

In addition to the change of leadership, the school is due to leave the Radius Trust and become part of the Orchard Hill College Academy Trust (OHCAT) in the new year.

The report noted that, before the decision to change trusts, governance at the school had been weak but was now already much more effective.

The report described the quality of teaching as “variable and not yet consistently good”, with the teaching of maths seen to be “limited”, though the teaching of reading and writing was “more consistent”.

In some classes, teachers' expectations of what their pupils could learn was seen as “too low”. However, in others expectations were much higher and the children made much better progress.

Mrs Drayton said: “With new leadership in place, inspectors recognised significant improvements have been made swiftly.

“We are confident that this work will continue to strengthen in the new year when the school will become an academy sponsored by OHCAT, a trust with excellent expertise in special needs.”