This morning Ofsted’s report on Shanklin CofE Primary School has been made public.
Its content are damning, finding the school “Inadequate” in each of the four judgement areas – Achievement of pupils; Quality of teaching; Behaviour and safety of pupils; Leadership and management.
Only 6% of schools in the UK have been judged overall as “Inadequate”.
We recommend those who are interested read the whole report, that we’ve embedded below.
Requires “Special measures”
The first key finding of the report states that the “Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement.”
Key findings
The rest of the key findings are as follows:
- This school is inadequate because pupils fail to make sufficient progress, especially in writing. Too much teaching remains inadequate, and the unacceptable behaviour of a few pupils disrupts learning.
- Since the last inspection, attainment has declined and senior leaders have failed to address the areas for improvement identified at that time. The achievement of pupils is inadequate because progress is too slow across year groups. This has led to pupils’ attainment being below average by the end of Year 6.
- Teaching is inadequate. Too often lessons lack a clear focus on what pupils are to learn, and there is too much emphasis on ‘getting tasks done’ without consideration of whether pupils have moved forward in their learning. While recent initiatives mean there is some good teaching and the proportion of inadequate teaching has reduced, these improvements are fragile. Teaching about the links between sounds and letters (phonics) is systematic but, in lessons observed by inspectors, work set for pupils was often too hard or too easy.
- Behaviour is inadequate and the very challenging behaviour of a few pupils disrupts the learning of others on a daily basis. While most pupils behave well most of the time, this relies too heavily on the support and reminders from adults and too many pupils lack self-control. Pupils’ attendance is low and below the national average for primary schools.
- Leadership is inadequate. Since taking up post, the acting head teacher has developed systems to collect and analyse the data about the performance of pupils, and has identified and challenged some inadequate teaching, with support from outside agencies. However, leadership is not widely shared and leaders have not demonstrated that the school can improve without support.
Some rays of hope
Looking hard, it’s possible to identify a few small rays of hope:
“Attainment in reading and in mathematics has recently improved by the end of Year 2 and is broadly average. At Key Stage 2, work in pupils’ books and in lessons confirms that most pupils are working below the standard expected nationally. However, on occasions satisfactory and good progress is seen in lessons.”
Year 5 is picked out as the lone example of it being done well:
“For example, in a Year 5 lesson, work was closely matched to pupils’ needs and adults had high expectations that pupils would create solutions for themselves. Consequently, pupils worked hard and made good progress. However, lessons of this quality, which are necessary in order to accelerate progress over time, are not typical.”
The council’s view
On The Wight wrote to councillor for Shanklin and Leader of the council, David Pugh and council boss and head of education, Steve Beynon for their responses to the report. Only Steve Beynon got back to us (Cllr Pugh’s response, received post-publishing has been added lower down), saying:
“It is particularly disappointing that Shanklin has been put into special measures as most Island primary schools have not only managed the schools re-organisation exceptionally well, they have also contributed to a significant rise in performance at Key Stage 2.
“This is evidenced today by the confirmation that Island wide the performance at Key Stage 2 have produced the best ever results for the Isle of Wight with a 13 percentage rise on 2011.
“Urgently agreeing an action plan”
“We are urgently agreeing an action plan designed to bring about the required improvements as soon as possible. We will be implementing and monitoring this plan swiftly and robustly to bring the school up to the high standards attained by most others as soon as possible.
“The LA will continue with the support we have been recently provided through an experienced outstanding head based on the Mainland and work with the governors and the diocese to develop a longer term plan. It is expected that the DfE will want this school to become an Academy during 2013.”
Chair of governors
We contacted the Chair of school governors yesterday and he said he hoped to get us something today.
Cllr Pugh’s response
Since we ran the story, Cllr David Pugh has responded with the follow:
“I fully support Steve’s statement in terms of the action that needs to be taken.
“The outcome of the judgement is disappointing, particularly given that the vast majority of primary schools prospered during the schools reorganisation process.
“Shanklin’s pupils deserve a high performing school and I hope that this will be a wake-up call to ensure that rapid improvements are now made, with the local authority support.
“As the local councillor, I will take a keen interest in the progress over the coming months and would be happy to discuss any concerns that parents may have.”
The report
Updated 10:13 Added Cllr David Pugh’s response.
