Pupils build trusting relationships with staff. This helps them to feel happy and safe in school.

Introduction

The Orchard School was inspected by Ofsted in February 2026 under the updated Education Inspection Framework (November 2025).

This inspection reflects the school’s continued development following a period of significant change. It recognises the strong foundations now in place, alongside the clear priorities we are addressing to ensure consistency in pupils’ experience and outcomes.

At The Orchard School, Everyone Matters, Everyone Cares, and we remain fully committed to securing the very best outcomes for every pupil.

Inspection Outcomes

Under the current Ofsted framework, schools are evaluated across a range of areas rather than receiving a single overall grade.

Our outcomes are:

• Safeguarding: Met
• Personal Development and Wellbeing: Expected standard
• Achievement: Needs attention
• Attendance and Behaviour: Needs attention
• Curriculum and Teaching: Needs attention
• Inclusion: Needs attention
• Leadership and Governance: Needs attention

Safeguarding being judged as met confirms that the school has a strong culture of safeguarding where pupils feel safe and concerns are identified and acted upon effectively.  

What Ofsted Recognised

The inspection highlighted a number of important strengths:

• Pupils feel safe and are well supported by caring, committed staff
• Strong, trusting relationships between staff and pupils
• Effective support for pupils’ emotional regulation and wellbeing
• A broad personal development offer, including trips, leadership opportunities and careers guidance
• A school culture that understands and responds to pupils’ complex needs
• Positive work to stabilise the school following a period of change
• Inspectors recognised that staff know pupils well and work hard to help them re-engage with learning and build confidence.

The school ensures that the curriculum extends beyond the classroom.

Areas for Development

The report also identifies key priorities where further work is required to ensure greater consistency and stronger outcomes for all pupils:

• Ensuring teaching is consistently clear, well-adapted and builds on prior learning
• Strengthening assessment so that it accurately identifies gaps and informs teaching
• Improving pupils’ achievement, particularly in writing
• Embedding consistent expectations for behaviour and routines across the school
• Continuing to improve attendance for all pupils
• Strengthening leaders’ precision in evaluating the impact of their work
• These areas reflect the next stage of the school’s development and are already central to our improvement planning.

Our Response and Next Steps

We fully recognise the areas identified by Ofsted and have already begun significant work to address them.

Our School Improvement Plan is tightly aligned to the inspection findings and focusses on:

• Consistency in classroom practice so that all pupils experience high-quality teaching every day
• Improving assessment and adaptive teaching to better meet pupils’ individual needs
• Strengthening foundational learning, particularly reading and writing
• Embedding clear routines and expectations through The Orchard Way (Ready, Respectful, Safe)
• Improving attendance through targeted, relational approaches with pupils and families
• Sharpening leadership systems to ensure precise monitoring and sustained impact

This work is already underway and will continue to be a central focus as we move forward.

New leaders have stabilised the school and begun to overhaul school systems.

Our Commitment

The Orchard School is a school with strong relationships, a clear moral purpose, and a dedicated staff team.

We are confident in our direction of travel and committed to ensuring that every pupil receives a consistent, high-quality experience that enables them to grow, thrive and succeed.

You can read the full Ofsted inspection report below. We have also included our previous inspection report for reference.