Readers will remember that back at the beginning of June, Ofsted announced they would be carrying out a five day inspection of the Isle of Wight council.
Poor corporate and strategic leadership
Ofsted have today published their report criticising the poor corporate and strategic leadership as well as an un-coordinated approach to school improvement, which as readers will know has led to a large proportion of ‘inadequate’ or ‘requires improvement’ schools.
The inspection, the first of its kind, was triggered because the council have, according to Ofsted’s Chief Inspector, failed to provide the standard of education that children deserve, “raising serious concerns about the effectiveness of the local authority’s support and challenge.”
The inspection took place between 10th-14th June and during that week OnTheWight spoke to Ofsted’s Regional Director for the South East, Matthew Coffey. He told us that IW education has become ‘simply not good enough’.
Summary of the findings
The local authority arrangements for supporting school improvement are ineffective.
Poor corporate and strategic leadership has left the current administration with considerable and significant challenges. The approach to school improvement has lacked coordination and it does not have the confidence of schools. Key decisions about resource deployment, school organisation and place planning have been characterised by poor analysis, limited consultation and weak implementation. This has resulted in a large proportion of requires improvement or inadequate schools.
A lack of rigour in monitoring and challenge, mostly due to poor use of performance data, means that the local authority neither knows the schools well nor intervenes early enough. Senior leaders in the best schools are not commissioned to help weaker schools improve as part of a coordinated strategy. Where specialist teachers and consultants are used, evaluation of their impact is weak.
School leaders, governors and local authority officers describe significant improvement in the short period of time since the appointment of the interim Head of Schools and Learning. This includes better communication, clearer direction and more consultation with stakeholders. However, this has not resulted in authoritative challenge to weaker schools. As a result, too many children and young people on the Isle of Wight still lack access to a good quality of education.
Wilshaw: “Findings should serve as a wake-up call”
Also inspected at the same time was Norfolk council. Commenting on the outcome of the two inspections, HM Chief Inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw, said:
“Today’s findings should serve as a wake-up call for those local authorities across England that are failing to get a grip on school improvement.
“Norfolk County Council has for far too long presided over a mediocre and complacent school system that has denied tens of thousands of children the chance of a decent education.
“The spiral of decline in school standards on the Isle of Wight has been more rapid but no less harmful to the prospects of children who live there. Two thirds of all secondary schools on the island are now judged inadequate. That is a shocking statistic and one that demands urgent action.
“If councils want to demonstrate they still have a relevant and meaningful role to play within the new educational landscape, they must act as dynamic and proactive agents for improvement.
“I am determined to continue this inspection programme into the next academic year and beyond to ensure local authorities with significant numbers of underperforming schools in their area held to account.”
[Simon Perry]
Image: Pasukaru76 under CC BY 2.0
