Headteacher blog 15/9/23

We finally received our Ofsted inspection this week and it has been a positive experience. I would like to thank our parents for their wonderful support for the school in Parent View, the unusually high number of free text comments left privately therein for the inspector and for the time taken to speak with the inspector when she was on the school grounds before school on Thursday. The children that spent time with the inspector in group sessions around reading, maths, geography and personal development/safeguarding were, she reported, confident and eloquent in how they spoke and engaged with the inspection.

There will be LOTS more to say, but I am not allowed to share the (provisional) outcome of the inspection for many weeks whilst it goes through a QA process. (Note that this was an ungraded section 8 inspection, typical for a previously ‘good’ school, that cannot directly result in a change in school grading unless serious weakness around safeguarding was found.)

When we receive it, the report letter will be frustratingly short – as was the inspection with just one inspector covering the whole school in two days. Mrs Sloan, the inspector, had certainly done lots of ‘homework’ prior to the inspection, and was impressively sharp and perceptive over the course of her visits; I am confident she will capture the school accurately in her final report.