Glowing report for ‘outstanding’ school

TOP of the class . . . head girl Leah Metcalfe, head teacher Hardial Hayer, head boy Moshin Khan and chair of governors Jim Greenwood

A DETERMINED secondary school that “required improvement” only two years ago has received the highest “outstanding” grade from inspectors.

The Radclyffe School in Chadderton joins the Blue Coat School as Ofsted’s only “outstanding” secondaries in the borough.

Inspectors praised the Hunt Lane school’s “conspicuously successful” policy of entering all pupils a year early for GCSE maths and English.

If pupils resit exams in year 11, their new grades, even in higher, do not count in school league tables. The rule was introduced by former education secretary Michael Gove who said that resits “devalued education”.

But Ofsted praised principled decision-making at Radclyffe, saying it was based on what was right for its pupils.

“The head teacher and governors are determined that every pupil should gain the best possible exam results to enable them to have excellent life chances,” says the inspection report.

“Pupils are motivated to improve on their performance when they resit their exams in year 11.

“The school’s policy of entering pupils early for GCSEs means that comparison with national results does not give an accurate picture of pupils’ achievement from their starting points to their finishing points in school. In 2015, almost two-thirds of pupils improved their grades from their first sitting and a large proportion of these improved their results by two grades or more.

“They left school having secured grades that showed excellent progress.”

Radclyffe was rated as outstanding in every area of the inspection report. Ofsted said the school had taken rapid action to improve pupils’ literacy. Many start with low levels of literacy, but have caught up and in many cases exceeded their peers when they leave.

Delighted head teacher Hardial Hayer said it had taken “moral courage” to ignore league tables and added: “This report vindicates the school’s early entry policy in English and maths which is successful in motivating the students and maximising their achievement.

“League tables do not mean anything to our children. What’s important to them is what they have learned and the sort of people they are going to be.”