Ofsted: Prism School in Bradford requires improvement

A SCHOOL for those kicked out of mainstream settings has been rated Requires Improvement by Ofsted, but it will always struggle to “overcome assessments” designed for regular education providers, a spokesperson said.

Prism Independent School, in Walker Drive in the Girlington area of Bradford, was visited by the education watchdog from March 9 to March 11.

The two inspectors judged the setting as Requires Improvement in most categories and it did not meet the independent school standards.

But Prism was deemed to be Good in the personal development category and described as a “caring school” where staff want to work and pupils are loyal and feel safe.

The school had 32 full-time students and two part-time pupils between the ages of 11 and 19 on its roll at the time of the inspection.

Prism takes on teenagers who are often referred from mainstream schools and come with “a wide range of behavioural and health issues”.

Staff have identified that often those joining the school have the reading ability of Reception class children.

The school has started to reengage reluctant and weak readers but none of the staff are currently trained in a systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) programme.

The report states: “Consequently, pupils’ reading will not materially improve despite the best efforts of staff.

“Leaders know this and staff training in a Department for Education (DfE)-validated SSP programme is planned.”

Inspectors also found that most pupils behave well a lot of the time but it can often be challenging and disruptive.

Staff refrain from using restraint to tackle this, instead building strong rapport with the students through cooking lunch and eating together, for example.

The report states: “Staff are adept at managing such situations, to a large extent because they have spent valuable time in building relationships with pupils.

“One of the ways they do this is by cooking lunch together and eating together.”

A spokesperson for Prism said: “We would have liked to of achieved a higher award and will strive to achieve a good at the next inspection, however it will always be a challenge for us to overcome assessments that are aimed at mainstream schools.

“The pupils referred to us come with a wide range of behavioural and health issues.

“These issues mean that there are unique levels of support for each individual young person, many of whom have attended mainstream settings.

“It is following this breakdown that the pupil is referred to Prism Independent School.”

“We are delighted that our approach to the personal development of pupils was recognised in the report as Good and we are proud of enabling and supporting young people to ‘achieve their potential’.

“We recognise our attendance levels are low and whilst we endeavour to improve our rates, it has to be acknowledged that many of the pupils have historically been non-attenders in mainstream schools and we have had many successes in engaging them in education.”

Inspectors criticised several practical issues at the setting, including the lack of a fire risk assessment for the premises and “exposed plumbing pipework and cabling to a light socket, which could pose a risk”.

The Prism spokesperson said: “We have undergone a refurbishment that was planned before the inspection and are confident we have satisfied health and safety requirements and look forward to the monitoring visits in the coming months to demonstrate the hard work by everyone involved at Prism.”

The Telegraph & Argus has been invited to visit the school, to see how it works behind-the-scenes, and will be attending in the coming weeks.