Alperton Community School which received an Outstanding grade in its previous Ofsted Inspection has been downgraded to Requiring Improvement in the latest inspection, which is the first since it converted to academy status in September 2012. The full report is available HERE
The Report states the school requires improvement because:
The Report states the school requires improvement because:
·
Students’
achievement is below expectations in a number of subjects, including English.
·
Not enough
teaching is good or outstanding, especially in English.
·
Teachers
do not set challenging work in all subjects, particularly for the most able
students.
·
Students
do not do enough extended writing in all subjects.
·
Teachers’
marking does not always help students to do better. Students sometimes do not
respond to teachers’ feedback and this restricts how well their work improves.
·
Teachers
sometimes fail to check if students understand the work taught during lessons,
which hinders their progres
·
The school’s leaders do not
compare what they know about students’ progress between Years 7 to 11 with
national expectations in all subjects.
·
Some subject leaders do not
have the skills to improve the quality of teaching and students’ achievement
quickly enough in their subjects.
·
Senior leaders do not evaluate
aspects of the school’s performance, such as the impact of teaching on
students’ achievement, precisely enough.
·
The sixth form requires
improvement because students’ results vary too much between subjects.
However Ofsted did identify the following strengths:
·
Weaknesses in teaching and
staff under- performance are being effectively attended to by the newly
appointed headteacher.
·
Students’ behaviour is good in
and out of lessons. Students are safe.
·
Attendance levels are higher
than average.
·
The governing body challenges
the school’s leaders and holds them to account for students’ achievement.
·
Students achieve well in
mathematics and science.
·
Lower
ability students, and those who speak English as an additional language,
achieve well.
8 comments:
If you don't like an Ofsted report you can always send it back and ask for a different one. Gove did exactly this just recently in Birmingham. Not sure if it works both ways but worth a try.
Mike Hine
‘Ofsted's first inspection of Birmingham’s Park View academy – at the centre of the Trojan Horse allegations of an Islamist plot – cleared the school of allegations of discrimination and retained its "outstanding" rating, according to a leaked draft of the inspector's recommendations seen by the Guardian. The results of that initial inspection were rejected just a few days later when Ofsted inspectors re-entered the school and overturned their initial findings, replacing a string of relatively minor recommendations with more severe criticism that could see it placed in special measures as early as next week.’ THE OBSERVER June 1st 2014
Much of what is happening at Alperton can be traced back to the feeder primary schools. If children do not leave primary with a solid grounding in literacy skills, this will affect their progress all through secondary where the curriculum pre-supposes that children are able to read, understand and take notes.
It occurred to me that primary schools with nearly 80% of children speaking English as an additional language (EAL) ought to be basing their literacy teaching on the models successfully used by international schools abroad that teach in the English medium rather than relying on a model based on children from an English-speaking tradition, .
Schools do not track how primary school leaving attainment links to a child's secondary school progress and worse yet, there is a complete unwillingness on the part of Alperton and its feeder schools, Barham and Lyon Park, to interrogate the data that already exists in order to make the necessary improvements,
The primaries it seems, are happy to be making marginal, incremental improvements to their student results at the expense of the greater gains that may derive from a bolder, evidence-based approach. This obviously impacts on the entire life chances of the children concerned and to me, spells the difference between mere 'satisfactory' and 'excellent' levels of attainment.
A further point to be considered is that teachers themselves are not necessarily equipped to promote literacy teaching. This is a direct fault of the experimentation that is rife in the education system. Current teachers would themselves have grown up in a time when spelling and grammar were less important than being able to put an idea across. This would have followed them into university and through gaining their teaching qualification. Hardly surprising then, that they are struggling now that the goal-posts have changed: hardly their fault for being products (victims?) of the education system of their time.
It is also sad to see that so many parents are having resort to spending money on private tuition for their children.
What happen to headteacher of Alperton ?
There have been a number of recent issues with headteachers being replaced soon after academization.
Alperton will likely go down route of removing all so called "soft subjects" just like Copland has done in past year.
What is so wrong about so called "soft subjects ?
We need young people equipped with a range of skills and subjects and not simply such a narrow focus.
I hope your initial 'what is happening at Alperton' is not based simply on 'what Ofsted say is happening at Alperton'. Ofsted's report on Copland after their March visit was laughably supportive of the government-imposed new regime. As is clear from what's happening in Birmingham, Ofsted and Ofsted inspectors know what pleases their masters and will make sure they get it (if not always at the first attempt).
I wouldn't take much notice of Ofsted judgements on standards of English; according to the BBC website today, ' (Ofsted) inspectors concluded leaders and governors were "not doing enough to mitigate against cultural isolation".
Oh dear. Are you going to tell them or shall I?
Mike Hine
Plenty to debate here Nana. I think one of the most important areas is the acquisition of English by EAL pupils and unfortunately the current curriculum, linked to SATs, Ofsted judgements and league table results, means that schools are constrained in what they offer. I would argue that EAL children need is total immersion in English with lots of conversation, drama and enrichment activities. Instead they end up with quite formal lessons aim at getting the required SAT grade.
The Ofsted Dashboard, although based on such results, does give some information on whether children are making expected progress from KS1 to KS2 and from primary to secondary school.
Barham http://dashboard.ofsted.gov.uk/dash.php?urn=101515
Lyon Park http://dashboard.ofsted.gov.uk/dash.php?urn=101505
Alperton http://dashboard.ofsted.gov.uk/dash.php?urn=138610
I would not blame feeder schools the Ofsted Judgement is clear leadership and management require improvement. "Governors are aware of students underachievement but this initiative [support plans] is not improving teaching and student achievement". Also, "Governors Judgements about some aspects of school performance...are too generous." It's a failure of governance not the feeder schools and the relevant governors should resign or be replaced with others who will provide sufficient challenge.
Carina O'Westrain
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