Pupils not prepared for exams – Ofsted
AHIGH school and sixth form centre in Southport does not prepare some of its pupils for their exams, according to a recent Ofsted report.
Christ The King in Birkdale received three consecutive “Requires Improvement” ratings by inspectors, between 2013 and 2017.
When Ofsted revisited the school last month, they found pupils’ progress to be “weak overall”.
The report said: “While leaders identified a number of weaknesses in teaching that contributed to poor outcomes, other weaknesses in the curriculum became evident during activities on this visit.
“[There is] too little focus on the acquisition of knowledge, pupils have entered examinations in a number of subjects not knowing enough of what they needed to have learned.”
Pupils described Key Stage 3 as being “easy” but that there was then a huge jump in terms of what was expected of them in Year 9. The report goes on to say this curriculum was “not being planned well enough and precious time is being wasted”.
The school has, however, managed to make some improvements since the previous inspection.
Inspectors found a shift in attitude of school leaders, and that the monitoring of teaching and learning was “much more rigorous”.
Senior leaders and governors were taking effective action, and there was a new head of department for mathematics.
Pupils’ overall attendance had also improved, and governors were providing the “right balance of support and challenge” to the headteacher.
But the report said the action taken was far too dense and what was important was “lost in the detail”.
It said steps undertaken by staff also failed to identify notable gaps in pupils’ knowledge that needed additional support and intervention’
In its most recent full inspection (September 2017), Christ The King was rated as “Requiring Improvement” in every area assessed by inspectors.
These areas are: leadership and management; quality of teaching; learning and assessment personal development; behaviour and welfare outcomes for pupils; 16 to 19 study programmes.
Christ The King’s most recent Progress 8 score (how much progress pupils make between Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4) was below average.
In the most recent full school year, 5.4% of sessions were missed – equal to the national average.