To receive the OfSTED Inspection Report for Langham CofE Primary School Academy

The Ofsted report for Langham C of E School was introduced by Mr M Fowler, Head of Service: Learning and Skills.  Mr Fowler explained that Langham School had been judged as Outstanding by Ofsted in 2009 and had converted to a stand-alone academy in 2013.  The academy failed to respond to concerns expressed from the Local Authority regarding performance.  The School is being supported by the Rutland Learning Trust since the retirement of the long-serving Head Teacher in September 2015.

Mrs D Rowland  Head of School,  Mr R Gooding  Executive Head Teacher and Mr N  Horrigan  Chair of Governors had been invited to the meeting to give an overview of the work being done in order to address the issues highlighted by the Ofsted Report and also those identified from their own findings. 

During the presentation, Mr Gooding, raised the following points:

•          Rutland Learning Trust was a multi-academy trust comprising Ketton Church of England Primary School, St Nicholas Church of England Primary School, Whissendine Church of England Primary School and now Langham Church of England School;

•          Rutland Learning Trust had been approached to work with Langham in 2015, they had been excited by the prospect making of a difference at the school, but understood that some significant changes would be necessary. Four weeks into their own investigation in order to establish some initial lines of enquiry, Ofsted arrived;

•          Ofsted were confident that the trust could implement rapid intervention and without the involvement of the Trust the School would have been at risk of being put into special measures;

•          The Governance, policies and strategies within the school had all been reviewed and updated;

•          The financial deficit had been addressed through redundancies and refining practice;

•          Teachers were positive about the changes that had been put in place and recognized the need to improve.  They were working together to achieve the targets that had been set;

•          Standards of teaching were inconsistent and this was being addressed;

•          There was now a more rigorous approach to accountability;

•          There had been a considerable change in the strength and effectiveness of the Governors since the inspection report; and

•          Children’s’ attitudes and learning behaviours were improving.

The following points were raised during discussion:

     i)        The external review recommended by Ofsted had already taken place.  An action plan had been put in place as a result of that review;

    ii)        Children with Special Educational Needs had been identified as failing to reach targets in line with other children.  Measures had now been put in place in order to address this which included greater accountability for the inclusion manager, review of the curriculum, training of the teachers and a provision map for each child which is kept under review;

   iii)        Results had shown that children remained at the same level throughout the Early Years Provision.  The Executive Head Teacher believed that this was caused by inadequate assessment methods and lack of funding;

   iv)        A teaching assistant with a Special Educational Needs background had now been put in place within the Early Years provision;

    v)        A planning and assessment grid had been introduced to track progress and identify vulnerabilities;

   vi)        Members were keen to support schools regardless of whether they were academies or state funded;

 vii)        Lessons should be learnt from the consequences of the school failing to take action in response to Officers concerns in the past;

viii)        It was felt that the relationship between the authority and Academies was now improving, but that the authority must provide some value to the academies in order for these relationships to be built on mutual benefit;

   ix)        The Local Authority has a duty to produce the best results for children whether the school is an academy, or state-funded.  Proactively working in partnership with academies by promoting the specific expertise that the authority can offer would nurture these relationships; 

    x)        The current school Governors are looking to work in partnership with the authority and have a positive attitude regarding change and improvement;

   xi)        The Local Authority Policy is encouraging schools to formalise their collaborations (which may mean becoming part of an academy trust) so that the school has a support network should the need arise;

 xii)        There was now a more rigorous approach to learning objectives and performance tracking for teachers at Langham.  The capability process would be used where methods for development failed to show an improvement;

xiii)        Overall there had been an improvement in the performance of teachers and initial evidence was encouraging.  Time was required to allow the new processes and strategies to embed;

xiv)        The School and Governors were now promoting parent engagement; and

 xv)        Members agreed that it had been very helpful to have the senior members of the school present, that it had offered reassurance and valuable insight into the issues highlighted in the Ofsted report, but also enabled them to gain a clear understanding of the actions being taken to address the problems that had been highlighted.

AGREED:

1)  The Panel NOTED the contents of the report.

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Mrs Rowland, Mr Gooding and Mr Horrigan left the meeting.

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