Another Isle of Wight school, this time Niton Primary, has been branded as ‘Inadequate’ by its latest Ofsted report, concluding, “This is a school that requires special measures.”
The school has dropped one grade from its previous inspection, two years earlier, which found it to be ‘Satisfactory’.
The only non-Inadequate rating was a ‘Good’ score for Behaviour and safety of pupils.
Some positives
The report (below) contains a lot of criticism, but the Reception class, Years 1 & 2 are praised, “because the teaching is good and the environment is exciting and inviting”.
One of the few other positive comments is about the recently-appointed Consultant Headmaster, Martin Lee, who was only recently brought in after the Head, Ingrid Ramsdale-Capper, has been on long-term sick leave.
Ofstead inspectors say he “has brought in some rapid changes that are having an immediate effect on governors’ understanding of their role and in developing systems for improving teaching.”
Mr Lee is only at the school three days a week, with the school being managed by a Senior Teacher for the remaining two days.
Lots of criticism
The Ofsted inspectors have levelled a lot of criticism at Niton Primary, at pretty much every section of the school.
We recommend reading the full report to get all of the details, but here’s a sample:-
The headteacher, managers and governing body have not done enough to tackle the serious shortcomings in the school’s effectiveness.
The school’s judgements about how well the school is performing are too positive.
Pupils in Key Stage 2 do not make enough progress from the very high standards they achieve at the end of Year 2. Teachers do not set work that is hard enough for many of these pupils.
Pupils’ progress is not checked often enough, and so pupils or groups who are falling behind are not identified sufficiently quickly.
Teaching is not improving enough and teachers are not being held to account for the progress of the pupils they teach.
Until very recently, the governing body has not had enough training or been given sufficiently detailed information to understand how well the school is performing. It has not demanded explanations from the school’s leaders for the poor progress of pupils.
How to improve
Ofsted lists a range of actions that it recommends taking to improve the school on page three of their report. There include improving the quality of teaching, the leadership of teaching and developing the skills of leaders and managers.
The Governors are advised to hold school leaders ‘robustly’ to account for the school’s performance.
Contact details
Niton Primary School
School Lane
Niton
Isle of Wight
PO38 2BP
Tel: 01983 730209
email: admin.nitonprimary@tiscali.co.uk
http://nitonprimaryschool.co.uk/wp/
Image: © Google Streeview
