Familiar staff are waiting to greet pupils as they arrive in school. This helps pupils to settle and make a smooth transition from home to the classroom, helping to ensure a calm start to the day. Staff and leaders have high expectations of all pupils and take every opportunity to praise pupils who are making the right choice or managing their behaviour well. Leaders and most staff are ambitious for their pupils and are focused on ensuring that pupils learn as much as possible during their time in school. Despite pupils’ very high levels of need, they engage with learning well, particularly where the subject holds their interest. For example, one group was transfixed when staff brought to life the book ‘Where The Wild Things Are’. Using masks, crowns and a wolf suit, staff delighted and engaged the class, who listened avidly, following the story with interest and concentration from beginning to end. Nearly two thirds of pupils in school are preverbal. Despite this, learning to read is a high priority for pupils. A newly introduced phonics scheme is used regularly with pupils who are able to access this level of learning. This supports reading well. The school library has not been readily accessible to pupils, as it has been used to support pupils who needed individual timetables. However, staff have not been defeated, and they use a book trolley to share books with pupils. Pupils’ levels of need are identified in their education and health care plans. These enable staff to understand pupils’ needs and support them to manage their behaviour. Pupils do go into crisis at times, and other pupils sometimes find this difficult. However, when asked whether bullying happened in school, pupils confidently commented, ‘There are no bullies in this school. We are all kind to each other.’