Parents give their views after junior school rated among worst in country
PARENTS have reacted after a Derbyshire primary school was named in a list of the worst in the country.
Glebe Junior School is one of 100 to be given an inadequate rating by education watchdog Ofsted.
The list of “100 worst primary schools” was compiled by mirror.co.uk from latest Ofsted ratings.
Glebe Junior, in Alfreton, was given its inadequate rating last October and it was a fall from the previous inspection in 2016 when it was rated “Good”. Among the factors that led to this “Inadequate” result were:
■■Safeguarding arrangements and staff member understanding.
■■Record-keeping needs improvement.
■■Staff acknowledgement of serious incidents.
■■Gaps in pupils’ knowledge, including no curriculum place for art.
■■Too many pupils arrive late in the morning.
However, Glebe did still receive Good ratings in two categories this time round – pupils’ behaviour and attitudes and pupils’ personal development.
The parents received a letter shortly after the rating was made in October where the school responded saying: “The findings do not correctly reflect our school”.
The letter went on to say: “We are in the process of challenging the Ofsted report with professional legal advice. We are contesting it in a number of areas, including safeguarding procedures and punctuality.”
We asked some of the parents picking their children up from Glebe Junior School to give their thoughts and feelings on the report.
Sarah, a mum-of-two, said: “It’s a shame really as he’s always quite happy in school. Lockdown obviously had a massive impact on his school life. It’s just really up to the teachers to try and bring him back up to speed as best they can.”
Another mum told us: “My son was involved in an incident that I don’t want to get into, but it wasn’t handled properly at all. Then to find out on the report that they are all bad at reporting issues is just not on.
“Since that letter, I’ve not heard anything else in terms of feedback or anything.”
Donna Lockton, a friend of a mother picking up her child, shared Lisa’s opinion, saying: “It was very disappointing. After what the pandemic did to schools, you’d think they’d be on top of their game, if that makes sense.”
She went on to say her daughter “is always saying that there’s people late but it’s up to the parents at the end of the day really. That’s not something the school can sort, other than telling them off.”
Mum of three Carol said: “Hopefully they’ll improve as it’s so important for their growing up, isn’t it. It’s just a shame that it’s scored so low, even after having all that time to prepare and get stuff in place ready for them coming back.”
Tracey, however, was happy as long as her child was happy, stating: “I don’t reckon much to it, to be honest. My daughter always comes home happy, it’s just a shame they aren’t doing everything they can behind the scenes because now the school’s got a bad reputation.”
We put the report findings back to headteacher Steve Watson and asked if anything had changed since October, in terms of improvements. He said: “We direct your publication to the website where you can see our letter to parents. We also held a parents ‘meeting at the school. We have since worked closely with the Local Education Authority to address the inspection report.”