One setback costs school its rating

Radclyffe School head Hardial Hayer

RADCLYFFE School has slipped from good to requires improvement in its latest Ofsted inspection.

The Chadderton secondary says that it has actually performed better than when it was previously inspected in 2010.

But new, tougher rules mean that because pupils’ attainment in English is not good enough, the school cannot be rated higher than grade three (requires improvement).

Inspectors from the education watchdog found that attainment had risen significantly in a number of subjects in recent years, especially in maths. The proportion of pupils receiving top GCSE grades had also risen sharply in several subjects and quality of teaching had improved across the school.

Behaviour was good, attendance had risen to above average and exclusions had fallen significantly. Ofsted also praised the curriculum and enrichment activities and said: “Leaders, including governors, know what needs to be done to bring about further improvement.”

However, not enough pupils made better than expected progress in English and their progress in the subject has not been assessed accurately enough. Until recently, the school leadership had not taken effective action to improve literacy.

The inspectors also said that some teaching needed to improve because it did not take account of pupils’ different abilities. Marking was inconsistent and pupils work was too often not corrected.

But Ofsted recognised that students had started to make better progress in English and head teacher Hardial Hayer is confident that the necessary improvements will be made.

He said: “While we may be disappointed that the current Ofsted grade does not truly reflect the vast improvements made at the school since the last inspection in 2010, the grade is purely driven by the need to make improvements in English.

“This judgement is in line with our own self-evaluation and we believe it is fair. Our key priority is that students achieve above the national average in English in 2014 and beyond.”
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