School challenges watchdog report

A HEADTEACHER has shared her school’s Ofsted report in support of calls for reforming the education watchdog.

Steph Fawdry, who leads RAF Benson Primary School, posted a Tweet backing a call to boycott Ofsted following the suicide of headteacher Ruth Perry.

Mrs Fawdry wrote “Something must change” and uploaded her school’s Ofsted inspection report from September, which says it “requires improvement”.

The school received a “good” rating on quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development and early years provision but “requires improvement” on its leadership and management.

A statement on the school’s website said: “We are delighted that the inspectors saw the many strengths that our school has to offer our children.

“After reading such a positive report and then looking through the judgements, you will appreciate that we are extremely disappointed at the outcome for ‘overall effectiveness’, especially as the many strengths of our school that have a direct impact on our children have resulted in the outcome of ‘good’. Additionally, the areas of ‘behaviour and attitudes’ and ‘personal development’ were one bullet point away from being graded ‘outstanding’.

“Prior to being notified of the inspection, and continuing our ‘external eye’ reviews from the last academic year, we were already working with the local authority governor services to provide an external review of governance to further strengthen the strategic leadership skills of members of the governing board.

“This has been under way since the start of the year, bringing about some amendments that have been implemented rapidly by governors and leaders.

“We also had a very positive safeguarding review carried out by the local authority safeguarding team the day before the inspection at which we were told our recording procedure was good. The opinion of the inspector differed from the view of the local authority in one particular area with regards to some elements of our recording of safeguarding incidents.

“The local authority, including the designated officer for safeguarding, visited again immediately after the inspection. They maintained their view that our records were detailed and completed in a timely manner, with appropriate actions being taken in line with all school policies.

“During the inspection, one inspector read with six children across years 1, 2 and 3 who were assessed by teachers to have found reading a challenge. The inspector noted that not all children had reading books that were matched to their phonic ability on day six of the new school academic year.

“We asked for more readers to be heard as it was so early in the school year and we believed that this was not typical practice. However, this request was declined.

“Following this comment, and at the request of the school, the local authority swiftly commissioned an independent review of teaching and learning which took place at the start of October. The findings of this report have been positive.”

The school has challenged the Ofsted report, saying some of it was inaccurate.