Dear parent,
RE: Ofsted Inspection Report
I am pleased to be able to provide you with the Ofsted Report from the recent section 5 inspection that took place in June. This was certainly a pivotal time for an XP Trust School inspection following the XP East School and still impacted by the covid 19 pandemic. However, I am pleased to report that the school’s overall effectiveness is Good, with Outstanding judgements for behaviour and attitudes and personal development.
Ofsted recognised the impact of our work around positive relationships with students, parents and carers, particularly noticing that ‘Pupils’ behaviour and attitudes to learning are a real strength of the school. Pupils demonstrate exceptionally high levels of self-control and maturity. The small number of pupils who need additional help to manage their behaviour are expertly supported by adults.’.
The inspection team commented on the impressive way our students are able to articulate their knowledge, behaviour and culture of the school. In addition, the work of leaders was noted as remarkable and decisive actions were recognised positively. Throughout the inspection we were told ‘this doesn’t happen in most schools’.
These are just a few examples of the many positive comments that are throughout the report. The staff and I are proud of the students in the school and the many positive comments that inspectors made about them of which a few have been included within the report.
Ofsted have identified one area for improvement to help the school to be judged outstanding in all areas; unsurprisingly, we had already identified as a leadership team and we acknowledge this has been more difficult due to the impact of the pandemic on our school culture. The actions to improve these areas are already underway and therefore our inspectors acknowledge that the leadership team has started to take action around this.
I would like to appreciate all of the staff for their hard work. We have an amazing staff crew who support our school community and learning provision to enable students to truly realise the best version of themselves.
Our students should be proud of themselves for the very positive impression that they gave during the inspection. I would further like to express my thanks to the governors, directors and executive team of the XP Trust for their commitment to the school and finally to you as parents who continue to provide the support to help your children achieve things that are truly remarkable and also voiced your positivity around our school.
We are starting the new academic year on a very positive note with this report and I am looking forward to the implementation of the improvements across both XP and XP East.
A copy of the report can be found below.
Thanks for your continued support
Mrs Claira Salter
Principal
What is the area needed to be “outstanding “ please?
Hi Mark
The full report can be found at the bottom of the blog post which highlights all the amazing things that Ofsted saw during the inspection in more detail. The one area identified as an area to improve states…
‘Leaders have made recent refinements to the school’s curriculum. These changes were made because some pupils had gaps in their knowledge. Some of these gaps have been exacerbated by the disruption to learning caused by the pandemic and issues with staffing. As a result, some older pupils have not made as much progress as they could by the end of key stage 4, including in national assessments. This impacts the extent to which they are well prepared for their next steps in education, employment and training. Leaders should continue to implement their plans to address these gaps, such as by introducing subject specific learning in subjects, such as mathematics and science, to ensure pupils make better progress by the end of Year 11’
We were pleased that the inspectors noted the actions and we had made as leaders to address this already. Please email me directly if you’d like to discuss more.
Thanks
Claira Salter, Principal
[email protected]