Turning Point Academy Review 2026: Specialist independent setting for neurodevelopmental needs (Years 3 to 11)

For families whose child has struggled to thrive in a larger mainstream environment, Turning Point Academy positions itself as a small, structured reset. It is a specialist independent school for pupils aged 7 to 16 (Years 3 to 11), with capacity for 80 pupils.

The most recent Ofsted standard inspection (20 to 22 February 2024) graded the school Good overall, with Outstanding judgements for Behaviour and attitudes and Personal development.

The offer is built around short, focused lessons, nurture-informed classroom practice, and a curriculum that blends GCSE routes with functional and vocational pathways. For the right child, the appeal is clear: a calm, tightly managed day, high adult support, and a strong emphasis on re-engagement after periods of disrupted schooling.

Turning Point Academy describes its core values as Belong, Commit, Accomplish, and the language matters because it signals the school’s intended purpose. This is not a conventional independent day school competing on exam outcomes alone. It is a specialist setting aimed at pupils with neurodevelopmental needs, including autism spectrum conditions, co-ordination development conditions, and a range of associated learning difficulties.

The school’s organisational choices reinforce that positioning. Lessons are designed to be short (45 minutes), with a predictable daily rhythm and a clear separation between learning blocks and structured breaks. That level of structure tends to suit pupils who become overwhelmed by long transitions, complex timetables, or unstructured social time.

A further feature is how explicitly the school frames behaviour as communication, alongside trauma-informed approaches and nurture principles. For parents, the practical implication is that behaviour systems are intended to be supportive and consistent rather than purely sanction-led. This can be an important distinction for children whose anxiety, sensory sensitivities, or previous negative school experiences have translated into school refusal or dysregulation.

Leadership is clearly identified. Mike Marshall is named as Principal and Designated Safeguarding Lead on the school website and in official records. For context on tenure, Ofsted documentation lists him as Principal at the pre-registration stage in December 2018, and as Headteacher at the February 2024 inspection, indicating leadership continuity from the school’s earliest phase of operation.

Independent specialist schools do not always publish the same breadth of performance data as large state secondaries, and outcomes can be strongly shaped by small cohorts, interrupted prior schooling, and highly individualised starting points. In this context, it is more useful to focus on the breadth of qualification routes and how the curriculum is built to re-establish learning habits.

Turning Point Academy describes a model that allows for higher level GCSE qualifications for some pupils, alongside functional, entry-level, BTEC and technical award routes for others. This approach is often appropriate for a mixed-profile cohort where progress needs to be measured in different ways across the same year group.

For GCSE benchmarking, FindMySchool’s dataset places the school 4,192nd in England for GCSE outcomes, and 49th locally in Liverpool, which sits within the below-average band when compared across schools in England. (FindMySchool ranking based on official data.) The same dataset records an Attainment 8 score of 5.0, an EBacc average point score of 0.43, and 0% achieving grade 5 or above in the EBacc measure. These figures should be read with care because specialist independent schools can have atypical entry patterns and qualification mixes, and year-on-year movement can be significant with small cohorts.

The curriculum is described as all-through, with a planned progression across key stages, and it is organised around four strands: Core, Creative, Life, and Social and Cultural curriculum. The intended effect is to make learning feel relevant and achievable for pupils who may have experienced repeated difficulty in mainstream settings.

Reading receives deliberate daily time. The model described includes a daily morning reading session plus a separate Drop Everything and Read slot after lunch, supporting both reading for pleasure and targeted reading skills. For pupils who have fallen behind, that regularity can matter as much as the choice of programme, because it builds stamina and reduces avoidance.

The school also describes flexibility in how the National Curriculum is taught, with smaller teaching groups supporting adaptation where engagement or anxiety is a barrier. This is the practical advantage of a small specialist setting: the timetable and teaching methods can be reshaped more quickly than in a large secondary with fixed sets and options blocks.

The class organisation published on the school website indicates a blend of whole-class teaching, small group work, paired teaching, and 1:1 teaching across the day. For parents, this is relevant because many pupils in this type of setting can cope well in a small group for some subjects but require targeted 1:1 support in specific areas such as literacy, emotional regulation, or executive functioning.

Because the school runs to age 16, the main transition point is post-16. The school’s careers programme is unusually explicit for a small setting. It describes careers learning embedded across the curriculum, a Level 2 Employability Skills qualification at Key Stage 4, and structured preparation for work experience for Year 10 and Year 11 pupils.

There is also a clear emphasis on supported decision-making: pupils are described as receiving careers adviser input from the point they join the school, with post-16 routes explored and secured through Education, Health and Care Plan reviews and annual reviews where applicable. This is often what families most need from a specialist placement, not just academic delivery, but a credible transition plan that reduces the risk of a cliff edge at 16.

For wider personal development, the school lists the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme as part of its Life Curriculum at Key Stage 4. In a specialist context, the value is less about prestige and more about building independence, teamwork and routine, all of which translate directly into smoother post-16 transitions.

Admissions at Turning Point Academy are best understood as referral-led rather than deadline-led. The school states it caters for pupils with or without an Education, Health and Care Plan, and that assessment places are available. In practice, many pupils in specialist independent settings are placed through commissioning local authorities, particularly where an Education, Health and Care Plan names, or is amended to name, the setting.

The practical entry advice for families is therefore to treat admissions as a two-track process:

• If your child has an Education, Health and Care Plan (or is in assessment), discussion typically sits within annual review or statutory assessment processes, alongside professional reports and evidence of need.

• If your child does not have a plan but needs a specialist approach, the “assessment place” route described by the school suggests an initial evaluation and agreed trial or transition plan may be possible.

For families comparing options, it is also important to note geography. The school states it serves a wide regional area including Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens, Wirral and Lancashire. That can be a benefit if local provision is limited, but it can also introduce long travel days depending on local authority transport arrangements.

A final point is timing. Although this setting is not part of typical local authority co-ordinated admissions in the same way as state schools, families working with Lancashire’s mainstream secondary admissions timetable for September 2026 will see applications open 1 September 2025 with a closing date of 31 October 2025 for Year 7 applications. For children with Education, Health and Care Plans, the statutory annual review cycle and consultation timelines are often more relevant than the mainstream closing date.

Parents weighing catchment implications can use the FindMySchool Map Search to sanity-check practical travel distance and journey patterns alongside other shortlisted options.

Pastoral support is positioned as central rather than supplementary. The school identifies a multi-person safeguarding and wellbeing structure, naming the Designated Safeguarding Lead (the Principal), deputy safeguarding lead, and wider pastoral and welfare roles, including a school guidance counsellor and a referrals, attendance and family liaison lead.

The February 2024 inspection confirmed safeguarding as effective. Beyond compliance, the more meaningful point for parents is the combination of structured routines and emotional support. The school describes delivering a range of interventions through in-house staffing, including counselling approaches and targeted programmes aimed at removing barriers to learning.

Attendance support is also emphasised. In a setting where many pupils may have previously experienced disrupted schooling, consistency and re-building trust can be as important as academic planning, and this is reflected in the school’s stated focus on transition, attendance, and family liaison.

Extracurricular provision in a specialist setting should be judged by relevance and accessibility, not by volume. Here, the strongest evidence is the way enrichment is integrated into curriculum design.

Two school-specific examples stand out:

• Forest Skills: described as a whole-school programme at Key Stages 2 and 3, with an outdoor, multi-sensory emphasis, including orienteering, shelters and campcraft, bushcraft, fire and cooking skills, tools and green woodworking, and environmental awareness.

Implication for families: for pupils who regulate better through movement and practical learning, outdoor curriculum time can reduce anxiety and improve engagement in classroom subjects.

• Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme: positioned as part of the Life Curriculum for Key Stage 4, supporting transferable skills such as teamwork, resilience and communication.

Implication for families: it provides a structured scaffold for independence and community participation, which can translate into better readiness for post-16 settings.

Beyond those, both the school website and Ofsted report refer to clubs and activities such as movie, computer gaming and sports clubs, alongside practical life skills such as household maintenance. These choices align with the school’s core purpose: building engagement, confidence and independence, not simply adding enrichment for its own sake.

For families who need wraparound options, school communications have also referenced holiday provision. A September 2022 newsletter described a “holiday fun club” offer, with sessions running 9am to 5pm and a charge of £10 per day, with the overall cost subsidised by the school, and transport not provided by the school. Families should treat this as indicative of the school’s approach rather than a guaranteed current offer, and check the latest position directly.

Turning Point Academy is an independent school. The most recently published fee figure is £45,000 per year for day pupils, stated in the Ofsted inspection report for 20 to 22 February 2024.

The school’s public materials do not clearly set out bursary or scholarship schemes in the way many mainstream independent schools do. In specialist independent provision, fees are often met wholly or partly through local authority commissioning where an Education, Health and Care Plan (or agreed placement) supports the decision. The right question for parents is therefore not only “what is the fee”, but also “what is the placement route”, and what evidence will be required to secure funding support.

The published daily timetable indicates a structured day running from pupil settle time at 9:45 through to preparation for home time at 3:40, with six lessons, a morning reading session and a dedicated Drop Everything and Read slot after lunch.

The school does not consistently publish standard before-school or after-school childcare in the way a mainstream primary might. It does, however, describe free toast and refreshments during morning break and on arrival, and a structured approach to breaks and lunch with staff-led supervision.

Given the wide regional intake described, transport arrangements are likely to vary depending on placement route and local authority involvement.

• High fees and funding complexity. The latest published day fee is £45,000 per year. Funding is often linked to local authority placement processes, so families should clarify early what evidence and timelines apply.

• Specialist profile. The school is designed for neurodevelopmental needs and related learning differences. For children whose needs are primarily met by mainstream SEN Support, this level of specialism may be more than is required, while for children with needs outside the school’s stated profile it may not be the right fit.

• Small cohorts can mean limited breadth. The curriculum includes GCSE, functional and vocational pathways, but in a small setting subject availability and grouping can change as cohorts change. Families should ask which qualifications are realistically available for their child’s year group.

• Academic gaps remain a live focus. A published improvement priority is addressing gaps and misconceptions in learning that can hinder progress, which matters for pupils aiming for higher GCSE routes.

Turning Point Academy is best understood as a specialist independent pathway for pupils who need a fresh start, high structure, and close adult support to re-engage with learning. The strongest headline is the combination of a Good overall judgement with Outstanding behaviour and personal development, plus a curriculum built around practical independence as well as qualifications.

Who it suits: families seeking a specialist setting for neurodevelopmental needs, where re-establishing attendance, confidence and routine is as important as exam preparation. The main decision point is admissions and funding route, since the practical process can be very different from mainstream application cycles.