The Isle of Wight’s only ‘outstanding’ school has been downgraded to ‘good’ — which means the Isle of Wight has no top-rated schools.
Bembridge Primary was given the lower Ofsted rating following an inspection last month, after nine years as an outstanding school.
Inspectors remained full of praise for the village school, however.
How the rating breaks down
The quality of education, pupils’ personal development, and leadership and management were rated as good, while pupils’ behaviour was rated outstanding.
Inspectors said pupils were keen to learn, enjoyed all the subjects and were very respectful towards one another
They found staff helped pupils prepare for their future and inspired them to learn — but pupils’ work did not reflect the high ambitions teachers had for them, especially at lower Key Stage 2.
Some of the most able pupils did not think deeply enough or connect their learning from different subjects.
Praise from inspector
The school was praised for using the local environment to bring students’ learning to life, by visiting the beach and lifeboat station, but activities did not always relate closely enough to their learning.
Leaders were told they needed to do more to develop the quality of education consistently across the school.
Groocock: “Standards at this school have risen”
Headteacher Sandra Groocock said she was pleased with the many positive comments and recognition of the school’s strengths.
She said,
“Since becoming headteacher in 2016, the quality of education has improved. Standards at this school have risen and are above national figures for both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.
“Our Key Stage 2 results for maths were the best on the Island with 100 per cent of our Year 6 children achieving the age related expectations.
“The report and our results are vindication of the incredible hard work and professionalism of our staff and the hard work and behaviour of our children.
“The judgement of ‘outstanding’ for behaviour and attitudes is exceptional — this reflects how our leaders and staff create a safe, calm, orderly and positive environment giving our pupils the greatest possible opportunity to achieve positive outcomes.
“As a school community we are very proud of our school and it goes without saying that we will continue to strive to provide the best education we possibly can.
“Schools need to be challenged and it is right the standards demanded of us are as high as they can be.”
IWC: Inspection framework changed
A spokesperson for the Isle of Wight Council said the inspection framework now being used was very different to the one in place in 2011, when the school was last inspected. They said,
“The good news is the inspection concluded children at Bembridge get a good quality education and leadership is praised
“Particularly impressive is the judgement of outstanding for behaviour and attitudes.”
There are now no outstanding schools on the Isle of Wight. One is rated inadequate, 11 requires improvement and 37 are rated good.
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which OnTheWight is taking part in. Some alterations and additions may be been made by OnTheWight. Ed
Image: tabor-roeder under CC BY 2.0
