Cedar House school cheers to outstanding Ofsted report

Staff, pupils and parents of Cedar House School in Bentham were delighted with the news that the school’s residential provision received an ‘outstanding’ grade in all areas.

The Ofsted inspector highlighted the excellent progress that children - aged between seven and 18 - made in all areas of education.

The school is part of the Witherslack Group, the UK’s leading provider of specialist education and care for children and young people with social, emotional and mental health needs as well as communication difficulties.

Some of the highlights from the report included how children “flourished” in an environment where they created very strong relationships with the staff and were encouraged to develop “social skills, self-belief and self-worth”.

Looking back to Cedar House’s last inspection in 2017, the school received a grade of outstanding in nearly all areas apart from “how well children and young people are helped and protected” where it achieved a ‘good’ grade.

This time, the school improved and was deemed outstanding in that area too.

“The designated safeguarding lead is passionate about his role,” states the report. “The staff use their intricate knowledge of the children to pick up on the signs that they are becoming upset.”

Head teacher Kathryn Taylor said: “Everyone connected with the school is delighted with the result of our recent Ofsted.

“I’m immensely proud of what we have achieved, as this judgement is not just the result of the team’s effort during the inspection, but the culmination of years of hard work and dedication.

“I think myself very fortunate to work with such a committed group of people and can’t thank them enough for all they have done to create a fantastic environment for young people to thrive and succeed.”

The inspector also praised the staff, managers and leaders of the school for being ‘highly ambitious’ and committed to ‘continually improving the quality of service for the children.’