Edgware school hit by high staff turnover

A NORTH-WEST London Jewish primary school that has suffered a high staff turnover has been told by inspectors it requires improvement in all areas.

Most pupils at the state-aided Beit Shvidler in Edgware, which was ranked as a good school five years ago, were achieving “below or well below” expectations for their age, Ofsted reported.

The school had “experienced turbulence in leadership, management and staffing last year and more recently”, inspectors stated. “This has contributed to lapses in learning, assessment and behaviour of pupils in a number of year groups.”

An interim head, who joined in September, had provided stability, and newly appointed middle leaders in literacy, numeracy and early years had made “a promising start”, they said.

But the school needed to improve in all five inspection categories: leadership and management; quality of teaching; behaviour of pupils; outcomes for pupils; and early years provision.

“The high turnover of staff and lack of attention to the daily routines have affected the school’s overall learning environment,” Ofsted said.

“Low-level disruption in some classes is common.”

Pupils in their final year made “below the national average” progress in writing last year. Those at the end of key stage one — aged around seven — reached expected standards in maths but “failed to reach or exceed age expectations in reading and writing”.

But Ofsted did find evidence of improving progress in the older classes.

A new head teacher, Rabbi Jonathan Spector, currently deputy head of Rosh Pinah Primary, is due to start at Beit Shvidler next term.