When a school is placed in Special Measures, as Cowes Enterprise College (CEC) was, Ofsted inspections are made far more frequently for a year or so, to try and make sure the school gets back on track. These are called Section 8 inspections.
CEC’s first Section 8 report has just been published.
We’ve embedded it below, so you can read it in full, but for your convenience, we’ve picked out the some of the main points.
The interim principal is providing clear, positive leadership; however, the small senior leadership team has lacked sufficient capacity to drive rapid improvement since the previous inspection and this has impacted on the progress made.
The local authority’s statement of action identifies the support required by the college and this is being provided by an external school improvement service. For example, support is being provided for teaching and learning, the curriculum and leadership and management.
College leaders accept that the timescales set for some of the proposed actions in their improvement plan are too rushed and this could limit the impact of these actions. These timescales are to be revised in order to ensure that all actions are taken in a timely, effective way so that they have maximum impact.
The interim principal and senior leaders have rightly concentrated their efforts on improving teaching and students’ achievement.
However, the college’s monitoring data indicates that still more needs to be done to eradicate inadequate teaching.
Some initial, sensible changes have been made to the curriculum in order to reduce ‘Learning Village Time’ and provide more time for academic subjects.
There remains some uncertainty as to when the college will move into its new building and it is important that this does not distract college leaders and governors from working to rapidly improve teaching and students’ achievement.
Full Ofsted report
