Council’s response to Ofsted annual report

Ofsted published its annual report on Tuesday 27 November 2012, which includes a list of how many pupils in each council area are able to attend a school that’s judged as good or outstanding.

We are pleased to note that the report confirms that the quality of teaching and of leadership and management in schools is improving, and this reflects Shropshire’s judgement of its own schools.

According to the report, which summarises judgements on schools up to August 2012, 59% of Shropshire children have the opportunity to attend a good or outstanding primary school.  Under the new Ofsted arrangements, introduced in September, the judgements on Shropshire schools have improved, with seven of the 15 primary schools inspected since September moving from satisfactory to good and two schools maintaining their judgement of good.  According to our calculations 64% of Shropshire children now attend a school judged good or outstanding.

This more closely reflects the outcomes achieved by pupils in Shropshire schools.  The majority of primary and secondary schools in Shropshire do well, and the overall outcomes for children at each stage (end of infant, end of primary, end of secondary) are all good.  In 2012 the outcomes at the end of the primary phase place Shropshire schools first in the rank order of similar local authorities for the percentage of pupils achieving level 4 or above in reading (89%), writing (84%)  and mathematics (86%).

Shropshire has a small number of schools judged to be inadequate.  Only one secondary school is in this Ofsted category and it is improving rapidly with the support of the local authority and its strong partnership with a local successful school.  Five primary schools are currently judged inadequate.  When schools are judged inadequate, the council works closely with the headteacher and the governors to put plans are in place that will improve the school rapidly.  If this rapid improvement is not achieved the council considers whether it needs to take additional action.  These schools receive regular monitoring visits by Ofsted to check that improvements are being made quickly enough.

Of the five schools in this category, three have been judged by Ofsted to be making good progress, and have received very positive monitoring reports. One school is yet to have its first monitoring visit and one has received a recent monitoring report which judges progress to be too slow.  The local authority has begun to work with this school on the next steps that need to be taken to improve provision.

The Council’s Lead Member for Learning and Skills, Cecilia Motley, said:

“We are determined to support our schools so they can continue to improve.  However, we have to acknowledge that schools in Shropshire are the seventh lowest funded in the country and because Shropshire is a very rural authority, this limited funding is spread thinly.  We will continue to press for fairer funding for Shropshire.  We will also continue to encourage stronger partnerships between schools so that they can use funding more efficiently and share roles and responsibilities across schools more effectively.”