His Majesty's Chief Inspector at Ofsted visits north west London school
TCES North West London school recently hosted a special visit from Sir Martyn Oliver, His Majesty's Chief Inspector at Ofsted, after he accepted an invitation to visit our outstanding school and see firsthand how we have created a truly inclusive learning environment.
NWLS provides special education for exceptional neurodivergent children and young people between the ages of 7 to 19 years old, part of our wider TCES Group who has never excluded a child in over 25-years.
Our CEO, Thomas Keaney, reached out to Sir Martyn after Ofsted proposed that 'Inclusion' would be one of the new evaluation areas as part of the new school report cards.
Thomas said: “I cannot tell you how excited I was to hear that inclusion would finally feature as part of Ofsted’s inspections. We have been providing truly inclusive education for over a quarter of a century. I reached out to Sir Martyn as I feel we have valuable and significant experience which we want to share with the wider education system on how you create truly inclusive schools for everyone. We were absolutely delighted when Sir Martyn accepted our invitation.
“The visit was extremely positive. We all agreed that there is a need to shift the mindset around inclusion, moving away from a "zero tolerance" approach or a "permissive" approach, and instead finding a balanced approach with high expectations and support for the learners and also for the teachers. We have the knowledge and expertise to help other schools embed inclusion and it was great to have the opportunity to talk to Sir Martyn about how we can do this.”
During Sir Martyn’s visit he was given a tour of NWLS by one of our students, who proudly told Sir Martyn about the different lessons they do. He showed him the art room where he spoke to our students about their work. He also saw the sensory room and observed an English class and a group therapy session in progress.
Michael Davies, Pastoral Care Coordinator at NWLS, talked Sir Martyn through the reflective, restorative approach we use when a young person has made bad choices or not behaved well. Rather than excluding the young person and taking them out of education, our students go through a process of understanding their feelings and emotions at the time, how their behaviour impacted others, and what they can do differently next time.
Sir Martyn was then taken on a short walk to NWLS's coffee shop ‘Common Ground – Community Café’ which is used by Post-16 students to gain work experience, allowing them to develop sustainable work-based learning skills.
One of our pupils who works at the café, showed off his barista skills and spoke to Sir Martyn about how the work experience gained in the café has led to him setting up his own coffee van and more recently a pizza business after learning how to make dough in just over 2-weeks!
He explained to Sir Martin how NWLS has changed his life and helped him accept his ADHD diagnosis. Rather than seeing it as a disadvantage, he now understands that his ADHD has helped shape him into the entrepreneur he is today and how the therapy at NWLS has made such a huge difference to his life.
At the end of the visit, Sir Martyn met with CEO Thomas Keaney and Chair of Governors’ Nick Pratt to talk about the importance of early intervention and working with local authorities and mainstream schools to build knowledge and skills to support inclusive practices. Thomas spoke about the TCES model and how we aim for excellence in education for neurodivergent children and are ready to share our expertise with other schools and organisations.
Sir Martyn commented: “I have really enjoyed visiting TCES and having the opportunity to meet many students who are clearly thriving there. It’s clear that inclusion is deeply embedded into the school’s practices, and this was reflected in the conversations I had with staff, students and parents. It’s great that TCES is willing to share its knowledge and practices with the wider national discussion on inclusion, through their Reach Out Inclusion Programme.”
Sir Martyn also congratulated TCES on the fact that all of our schools are graded Outstanding from Ofsted following recent inspections in 2025.