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Bright future for Hope House special school in Newark with ambitious plans and renovations following negative Ofsted reports




An independent special school is making positive changes after a series of negative Ofsted reports.

Hope House School, on Barnby Road, Balderton, is an independent special school that educates and supports children of all ages on the autism spectrum and other associated conditions.

In September Ofsted published a report which found the school required improvement.

Copyright Mike Sewell 2022. David Wilson Homes East Midlands have donated a Buddy Bench to the Hope House School in Newark, Nottinghamshire.Hope House is an independent special school that educates and supports young people who have an autism spectrum disorder and associated conditions.(For Helen Dubber - Unsworth Sugden) (60937146)
Copyright Mike Sewell 2022. David Wilson Homes East Midlands have donated a Buddy Bench to the Hope House School in Newark, Nottinghamshire.Hope House is an independent special school that educates and supports young people who have an autism spectrum disorder and associated conditions.(For Helen Dubber - Unsworth Sugden) (60937146)

Despite this, the school showed signs of progress from the previous report in 2020, which found the school to be inadequate, by receiving a good rating in three of the five areas graded.

Now they are undergoing a series of changes, including large scale refurbishments and re-structuring of how the school is run, to improve still further.

Hope House’s new head Michelle McRae joined in September, bringing years of expertise.

She has previous experience working in and running special schools after spending over a decade as a specialist teacher in Gainsborough, Lincoln and most recently running the Grantham Springwell Alternative Academy which was graded as outstanding in their last Ofsted report.

Head Teacher, Michelle McRae. (60842326)
Head Teacher, Michelle McRae. (60842326)

Michelle said: “The area of need here is the curriculum and that is being addressed.

“Before I came, there was more of a focus on behaviour and the curriculum wasn’t at the forefront.

“We want to be more aspirational. So we have a new curriculum model for early years and pre-verbal students. I also want to introduce GCSEs so that our year 11 students can take GCSE English and maths.

“We have ordered 25 laptops so every student has one to support classroom learning and in the early years every student will have an iPad.”

“I am trained in nurture, which is about bringing the home into the school and relationships. It helps create a family atmosphere and ethos, which contributes towards personalised learning.”

Teaching assistant, Josh, and learning co-ordinator Kirsty Thompson. (60842325)
Teaching assistant, Josh, and learning co-ordinator Kirsty Thompson. (60842325)
Teaching assistant, Sherelle (left) and teacher Karen Bellamy. (60842251)
Teaching assistant, Sherelle (left) and teacher Karen Bellamy. (60842251)

Michelle is fully focused on the future after a challenging few years for staff.

She said: “For me, the future looks like more permanent and more qualified staff with a very clear continued professional development.

“We have training on IT systems, autism training and specific training on early years, maths and delivering science lessons.

“Ultimately, it’s about changing the mindset of staff because they’ve been through quite a challenging couple of years.

“Staff are our biggest resource but they need to be the right staff, which is why I am trying to get more permanent staff rather than supply teachers, going through every CV with a fine tooth comb to ensure they are right for the job.”

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The school now employs enough staff for more than one-to-one student support.

Plans to improve literacy and phonics have been put in place after it was highlighted in the Ofsted report.

The English lead at the school has undergone special phonics training, with phonics and reading now taking place daily in every classroom.

Phonics guidance is also sent home to parents and a library and reading areas have also been created so that students have better access to books.

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As part of the general refurbishments, classrooms have been given a splash of colour to replace the old grey walls and will now be outfitted with televisions to support interactive learning.

“It’s a big job and for me to just come in and immediately turn the school around is not realistic, but we are going in the right direction.” Michelle said.

“Every child deserves the best, I knew the challenge when I came here and if we all work together we can achieve that.”

Hope House is a school with a clear vision and signs of real improvement, with changes already clear to see. This is in no small part due to the staff who show a clear love for the students and the job.

There is hope for a bright future in this ambitious special school.



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