The Castle School A GSG School
- The Castle School
Love Lane
Donnington
Newbury
Berkshire
RG14 2JG - Head: Mr Jon Hewitt
- T 01635 42976
- F 01635 551 725
- E [email protected]
- W www.thecastles…newbury.org.uk/
- A state special school for boys and girls aged from 2 to 19 with complex learning difficulties and communication and interaction needs.
- Boarding: No
- Local authority: West Berkshire
- Pupils: 182 (133 boys; 49 girls)
- Religion: Does not apply
- Open days: Contact School
- Review: View The Good Schools Guide Review
-
Ofsted:
- Latest Overall effectiveness Outstanding 1
- 16-19 study programmes Outstanding 2
- Early years provision Outstanding 2
- Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding 2
- 1 Short inspection 25th April 2024
- 2 Full inspection 7th October 2014
Short inspection reports only give an overall grade; you have to read the report itself to gauge whether the detailed grading from the earlier full inspection still stands.
- Previous Ofsted grade: Good on 11th July 2012
- Ofsted report: View the Ofsted report
What The Good Schools Guide says..
We witnessed a rounders match in full swing, as well as a kick-about in the playground, with spirited participation from the staff. The students run their own soup kitchen, and grow vegetables in raised beds and polytunnels – each class has a section. Parents praised the whole-family approach and spoke gratefully of the sibling courses their other children had attended in their mainstream schools. The courses were run discreetly, to help them meet friends with SEN siblings, and learn to…
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Other features
All-through school (for example 3-18 years). - An all-through school covers junior and senior education. It may start at 3 or 4, or later, and continue through to 16 or 18. Some all-through schools set exams at 11 or 13 that pupils must pass to move on.
What The Good Schools Guide says
Head
Since 2011, Jon Hewitt BSc PGCE NPQH AMBDA. After taking a degree in geology at Cardiff University and a further PGCE at UEA, became interested in pastoral care during his first teaching post, at an Oxfordshire secondary school. This led to further mainstream secondary school posts and a specialist interest in learning difficulties, challenging behaviours and exclusion. A spell as EBD co-ordinator in Wiltshire and as SENCo in Swindon was followed by promotion to deputy at Rowdeford School, Devizes, before the move to The Castle School as head.
Fit and youthful in appearance, although more beard than hair, he is both a fast talker and fast walker, managing to combine efficiency with sympathetic listening. ‘The day he showed me round I was very emotional and he was virtually carrying a...
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Overall school performance (for comparison or review only)
Results by exam and subject
Subject results
Entry/Exit
Special Education Needs
The Castle School is a West Berkshire Education Authority Special School. It is a mixed day school which takes pupils, between the ages of two and nineteen, who have a wide range of educational needs. Our Nursery class is colocated to Victoria Park Nursery, spending time at The Castle School two afternoons per week to use the specialist facilities. The Castle School is resourced by the Local Education Authority to provide education for 15 pupils with ASD who need a higher staffing ratio and a more intensive programme than others. At the present time there are 21 pupils who have a diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder recorded on their Statement of Special Educational Needs and 13 pupils are in the ‘Resourced classes‘.
| Condition | Provision for in school |
|---|---|
| ASD - Autistic Spectrum Disorder | Y |
| HI - Hearing Impairment | |
| MLD - Moderate Learning Difficulty | |
| MSI - Multi-Sensory Impairment | Y |
| OTH - Other Difficulty/Disability | Y |
| PD - Physical Disability | |
| PMLD - Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulty | |
| SEMH - Social, Emotional and Mental Health | Y |
| SLCN - Speech, Language and Communication | |
| SLD - Severe Learning Difficulty | |
| SpLD - Specific Learning Difficulty | Y |
| VI - Visual Impairment |
Interpreting catchment maps
The maps show in colour where the pupils at a school came from*. Red = most pupils to Blue = fewest.
Where the map is not coloured we have no record in the previous three years of any pupils being admitted from that location based on the options chosen.
For help and explanation of our catchment maps see: Catchment maps explained
Further reading
If there are more applicants to a school than it has places for, who gets in is determined by which applicants best fulfil the admissions criteria.
Admissions criteria are often complicated, and may change from year to year. The best source of information is usually the relevant local authority website, but once you have set your sights on a school it is a good idea to ask them how they see things panning out for the year that you are interested in.
Many schools admit children based on distance from the school or a fixed catchment area. For such schools, the cut-off distance will vary from year to year, especially if the school give priority to siblings, and the pattern will be of a central core with outliers (who will mostly be siblings). Schools that admit on the basis of academic or religious selection will have a much more scattered pattern.
*The coloured areas outlined in black are Census Output Areas. These are made up of a group of neighbouring postcodes, which accounts for their odd shapes. These provide an indication, but not a precise map, of the school’s catchment: always refer to local authority and school websites for precise information.
The 'hotter' the colour the more children have been admitted.
Children get into the school from here:
regularly
most years
quite often
infrequently
sometimes, but not in this year
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