Struggling school’s Ofsted rating upgraded but it still ‘requires …

A secondary school in Essex has seen its Ofsted rating upgraded after its latest inspection but is still earmarked as requiring improvement. Notley High School and Braintree Sixth Form was most recently subject to an inspection in July of this year, after joining the Bridge Academy Trust as a member institution in April 2021 and seeing Margaret Ryan appointed as its headteacher in February 2022.

In February 2020, the secondary education provision of the school was reported to have various long-standing issues with pupil behaviour, which in turn caused disruption to lessons and a “detrimental impact on the education of many”. Bullying and discrimination, including “throwaway” homophobic comments and criticism of peers’ appearances created “a culture where pupils are not comfortable being themselves”.

In addition, there was “too little” expected of pupils, with the taught curriculum not considered to be sufficiently organised or challenging.

Ofsted’s most recent inspection of the school saw a marked positive development of learning conditions, however, a number of inconsistencies prevented the rating awarded from being higher than ‘requires improvement’.

The report published in October notes that, although incidents of bullying appeared to have significantly reduced and pupils now “show high levels of respect for other races and religions”, offensive name-calling is still common, as well as a small minority of pupils who have continued to “regularly disrupt learning”.

A lack of implementation of the school’s behavioural code and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) plans also led to pupils “too often displaying apathy towards their learning”, and a number of instances were noted in which teachers did not gauge pupils’ abilities nor consolidate their knowledge.

However, the report stated clearly that “these inconsistencies do not exist in the sixth form” and that “students have high levels of resilience towards their learning and the environment is inclusive and welcoming.”

In a statement given to LDRS, head teacher Miss Ryan said: “As a school community we are happy that the inspection has reflected the significant changes that have been made since the last inspection in 2020.

“Two of the judgements were on the cusp of moving from Requires Improvement to Good, particularly behaviour and the quality of education. There are so many positives to take from this report and we already had identified the areas that they have left us to action. We are confident that when they return in another 12-18 months we will secure the Good judgement and also hope to shift some of the good ratings to outstanding judgements.”

References

1. ^{^} 108 Essex primary schools that have been rated good by Ofsted (www.essexlive.news)
2. ^{^} Ofsted Chief Inspector praises improving Hylands school after ‘requires improvement’ rating (www.essexlive.news)