The Yellow House School is a small independent special school operated by a sole proprietor. The school is located on two sites across Essex and Suffolk. The main site, which opened in 2002, is at 1 Alderford Street, Sible Hedingham, Essex CO9 3HX. The Suffolk site opened in 2006 and is based in premises at 1 Nethergate Street, Clare, Suffolk CO10 8NP. The school offers full-time and part-time programmes. All pupils have an education, health and care plan and histories of extensive periods away from education. Some pupils Inspection report: The Yellow House School, 4–6 June 2019 Page 10 of 13 have not attended their previous school for up to three years prior to joining The Yellow House. Part-time provision is agreed with the placing authorities and tailored to meet the complexities of individual pupils’ needs. A few pupils spend some of their time on work-related courses with a specialist provider, The Construction Training Partnership. A few pupils stay on at the end of key stage 4 to complete their programmes in Year 12. The headteacher has been in post since September 2017. The school does not use supply staff. The school received its previous standard inspection in November 2017, when it did not meet all the independent school standards. At that time, the school’s overall effectiveness was judged to require improvement. The independent school standards relating to premises and accommodation and leadership and management were not met. The Department for Education (DfE) issued a notice to the school on 21 November 2018. Following the 2017 standard inspection, the school submitted an action plan to the DfE to address the areas for improvement identified during the inspection. The action plan was evaluated on 5 March and judged as not acceptable. A second action plan was evaluated as not acceptable on 1 June 2018. The first progress monitoring inspection found that the school’s premises and accommodation met the required standard, but the standards linked to the quality of leadership and management remained unmet. In addition, unmet standards were identified concerned with the welfare, health and safety of pupils. The school’s single central record of the pre-employment checks carried out on staff suitability was not up to date. The follow-up action plan to the first progress monitoring inspection was judged to be not acceptable in January 2019.