John O'Gaunt rising to Ofsted challenges

Her Majesty’s Inspector Christine Raeside was clearly encouraged following an inspection in January. The visit was prompted by a full Ofsted report last November which concluded the school needed improving. However this was the result of a tough, new inspection regime under which the watchdog no longer describes schools as ‘satisfactory.’
The former grade has been replaced with ‘requires improvement.’ This was acknowledged at the time by West Berkshire school improvement partner Paul O’Shea, who told the school: “In my capacity as an Ofsted inspector I have seen every school drop a grade under the new framework since September. You have not. This clearly indicates the school is improving effectively.”
His confidence has been justified by the interim report which concluded that head teacher Sarah Brinkley and her team are “taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement.”
The report added: “At the time of the inspection, the headteacher had already undertaken a full evaluation of the school’s performance and had recognised that self-evaluation and improvement planning needed greater rigour.
“She has now established coherent and well-targeted actions for improvement. There is an intervention plan for under-performing departments which sets out regular, sharply-focused strategies for improvement and is integrated into processes for checking subject leaders’ performance.”
It went on: “Reviews of departments are conducted in order of priority; a review of the English department is clear and well-focused on student achievement.
“Expectations of how heads of department will drive improvement are clearer than in the past. There are well-focused rapid improvement plans in place for the achievement of boys and for the achievement of students in the sixth form.
“The impact of measures to improve achievement is carefully measured.”
Mrs Brinkley said: “We have had a follow-up, and rather glowing, Ofsted monitoring visit. The focus is to see how we are working on the key areas identified previously and if the school’s progress is quick enough.
“Our inspector was impressed with the forensic way that we’re analysing data and using it to move children forward in their learning. It was a very encouraging step on our journey to becoming an outstanding school.”