The St Michael Steiner School is an independent non-selective co-educational day school which is a full member of the Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship. Itwas established in 2001 by three members of the current College of Teachers and moved in 2012 to its present location, a listed building in its own grounds on the edge of Hanworth Park, in the London Borough of Hounslow. There are 102pupils on roll aged from three to sixteen years, of whom five attend the school part-time. Sixteen pupils attend the Kindergarten; nine of them are in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). There are six pupils who have English as an additional language (EAL), and three pupils with a statement of special educational needs. The school’s educational provision is inspired by the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner. It aims ‘to help the children orientate themselves towards whatever comes to meet them in life, by nurturing in them a deep respect for all human beings and an enthusiastic and active interest in the world.’ The school uses the Steiner Waldorf system of naming classes and these names are used throughout the report. Their corresponding National Curriculum years are shown below. Steiner class name Kindergarten Class 1 (lower school) Class 2 (lower school) Class 3 (lower school) Class 4 (lower school) Class 5/6 (lower school) Class 8 (upper school) Class 10 (upper school) National Curriculum Nursery, Reception, Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Years 6&7 Year 9 Year 11 The school was last inspected in 2010. Summary of main findings: The St Michael Steiner School provides its pupils with a satisfactory quality of education. The curriculum reflects the principles and philosophy of Rudolf Steiner well: it is broad and balanced, and engages pupils’ interests at each stage of their development. The quality of the teaching is never less than satisfactory, and some is good, but the outstanding teaching which does exist is not shared effectively. 3 Teachers give appropriate support to the pupils with special educational needs in their class, but this support lacks effective coordination across the school. Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good, although there are limited opportunities for them to take roles of responsibility. Pupils say that they feel safe and well cared for but are disturbed by the poor behaviour of a few pupils both in class and at play times, and complain that not all teachers handle this in a consistent way. The school makes good use of its new premises, but is untidy in places and routine maintenance work is not always carried out promptly for the protection of pupils’ health and safety. All staff have been appropriately checked for their suitability to work with young people and receive basic training in safeguarding and fire safety; however, the more detailed training for the designated safeguarding person shas not been kept up to date. The EYFS provision is extremely well managed, has clear educational direction and gives the youngest pupils a very good start to their school life. There are excellent links with the community. The College of Teachers maintains a strongly shared vision for the school’s curriculum and ethos, but lacks a tight oversight of routine administrative procedures and there is no check on the practical management and implementation of school policies. The school has addressed some of the recommendations of the last report, but a few remain unchanged. What the school does well:  it provides a warm and inclusive community in which pupils can discover their unique talents and grow in an unhurried and supportive environment;  it nurtures pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well; and  the EYFS provision is outstandingly well led and gives the youngest pupils a very good start to their school life.