GREENBANK Residential School has been downgraded to ‘good’ following the latest Ofsted report.

The Hartford school teaches children aged 11 to 18 who have moderate or severe learning difficulties and/or communication difficulties, including autistic spectrum disorder.

Greenbank School's residential provision is inspected separately to the main school, which recently received an 'outstanding' rating.

The residential provision provides care, support and educational opportunities for 56 young people. A maximum of 18 students can stay each night.

Greenbank Residential School was inspected on October 3.

Despite being downgraded from ‘outstanding’, the latest report – which was published on November 17 – praised the school. Feedback from the young people staying at the facility were particularly positive.

“Young people say that they enjoy staying here,” it said. “They were extremely complimentary about the staff team and the care that they receive.

“One young person said: ‘I love being here. It is hard because, after my stay, I know I have to wait another week’.

“A parent said: ‘He packs his bag ready to go. This is massive for him as he will not stay anywhere else’.”

Young people have ‘excellent’ attendance records at the school, and told the inspector they feel safe at the school.

Several safeguarding policies, procedures and systems work together to keep young people safe.

Young people said that bullying was not an issue for them.

The school’s record-keeping was criticised in the report.

The report said: “Members of staff were very knowledgeable about the young people that they cared for, but this knowledge is not always reflected in the young people’s information.

“For example, young people are often taken out in a group to complete targets set out for their independence training.

“However, the record of the visit is written as a group and not what each individual young person accomplished. Therefore, it is difficult to see the progress that young people are making.

“In addition, some young people’s records are not clear because dates or parts of dates are missing, for example year of the record.

“As a result, the reader does not know whether this is old or new information. This does not help young people understand the timelines of their journey throughout the residential provision.”

Concerns were also raised about the use of shared bedrooms.

Mike McCann, Greenbank Residential School headteacher, said actions are already underway in response to the areas of development by Ofsted.