Furious head hits out over Ofsted report
ADISTRAUGHT headteacher has sent an emotional letter to parents after being told her school still ‘requires improvement’, despite its exam results now being among the best in the area.
Lynne Fox, the headteacher at Bramhall High School, said that she was circulating the latest Ofsted report with ‘great dismay, disbelief and anger’ given its finding that education at the school was not good enough.
She has now lodged an official complaint with the watchdog, which had previously indicated that the school was on the right track following a monitoring visit last year.
The report acknowledges that the school has brought about ‘considerable improvement’ since its last full inspection in 2017.
But they found that allowing pupils to choose their GCSE studies in Year 9 had ‘restricted their learning’, which ‘in turn limits the knowledge and understanding that they can draw upon in their further studies and later life’.
But Mrs Fox – who says the decision was taken to protect the wellbeing of students in a ‘high pressure examination climate’ – says Ofsted has moved the goalposts by introducing a new framework against which schools are assessed.
In the letter to parents, she says Ofsted’s findings were ‘incredible’ given that only last year it noted that ‘improvements in the quality of teaching are having a positive impact on pupils’.
She continues: “It is wrong, extremely worrying and unjust that actions that were highly praised in April 2018 are now simply not good enough following the introduction of a new Ofsted framework in September 2019.”
She added: “We have done everything we were asked to do, we were told that if we had been inspected in the summer we would have been rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ but they have moved the goalposts.”
The headteacher has also written an open ‘letter of concern’ to other education leaders, setting out the ethical dilemma she believes schools face between doing what is right for its children or adhering to Ofsted’s strict guidelines.
An Ofsted spokesman said: “Ofsted is not concerned about the actual length of time allocated to a key stage.
“Our interest lies in the quality, breadth and balance of the curriculum delivered within each key stage and how well it meets the ambition of the national curriculum.” ●●SEE Letters on page 10.