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Ofsted will be visiting St Sampson’s High School within the next academic year to check that it is implementing changes, following a damning report into its quality of education.
The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted) was appointed as the inspectorate of local schools by the Committee for Education, Sport and Culture back in 2018. It has since undertaken two full inspections; Vale Primary and St Sampson’s High School.
While the inspection at Vale Primary School found it to be ‘good’ across five categories, Ofsted has found St Sampson’s High ‘inadequate’ - the lowest rating – in all but one category.
Ofsted has now suggested several action points the school needs to work on to bring it up to standard.
Pictured: The President of ESC, Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen, apologised to students and families who have been “let down”.
Ofsted said that leaders at the school “particularly subject leaders” need to develop effective curriculum plans, since staff misunderstand the curriculum across the school.
Additionally, teacher’s expectations of Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND) students are too low, according to Ofsted. It said teachers need to adapt the curriculum because, currently, students aren’t able to reach their potential.
Senior leadership needs to develop a better system to deal with bullying because “the school’s strategy for behaviour management is not effective” at the moment, according to Ofsted. It also stressed that attendance rates need to be improved, as many SEND students are not attending school regularly.
Ofsted also highlighted that students in Years 7 and 8 are not given enough information about careers, and the Personal, Social and Health Education curriculum needs to be co-ordinated better.
Pictured: “The quality of education at St Sampson’s High School is not good enough,” said Ofsted.
When commenting on the report, the Director of Education, Nick Hynes, said parents and carers are being offered the chance to come meet with Education staff to discuss the future of the school.
“All of us, everyone involved in the delivery of education at St Sampson’s High, need to take responsibility for it and ownership of the problems and the improvements needed,” he said.
“I have no doubt we will see a significant improvement over the next 12 months but parents and carers will understandably want answers so we will be offering them the opportunity to meet with us this week.
“Ofsted will return to the school for a monitoring visit to check on progress within the coming academic year and I am confident that the changes that are being put in place will ensure that urgent improvements are seen.”
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