Staff, governors and students at Bradley Stoke Community School (BSCS) are celebrating after receiving another positive report from Ofsted.
A team of five inspectors spent two days at the school in mid-May to carry out a ‘full’ inspection, the first since the school was judged to be ‘good’ in April 2013. Their conclusion, following what the headteacher describes as an “incredibly thorough and fair” inspection, is that BSCS retains its overall effectiveness rating of ‘good’.
In two of the six assessment categories, ‘effectiveness of leadership and management’ and ‘personal development, behaviour and welfare’, inspectors awarded the highest grading of ‘outstanding’. The other four categories were all rated ‘good’, including ‘early years provision’ which was being assessed for the first time since the school’s primary phase opened in September 2015.
Inspectors noted just two areas for improvement, both relating to “raising achievement further” – by focusing on progress made by students on academic courses in the sixth form and applying recently introduced developments in teaching and learning consistently across subjects.
Steve Moir, headteacher at BSCS, commented:
“The framework via which Ofsted inspect was revised in 2017 and is significantly tougher than previous iterations. The bar has been raised for young people via new assessment systems, and it has been raised exceptionally for schools in terms of how their performance is judged. Since the introduction of a new inspection framework, fewer than 3 percent of schools in the South West region have been graded as ‘outstanding’ in any assessment category, which gives some context for the superb achievement this outcome and report represents. Thanks, as always, to the families that continue to support us, staff, students, governors, the community and the academy trust.”
BSCS is part of local multi-academy trust, Olympus, whose CEO, Dave Baker, commented:
“I am delighted to see Mr Moir and his team receive the external validation of the high quality of practice at BSCS. I was particularly pleased to see that inspectors commented on the strong culture of self-improvement. With Ofsted visits taking place usually on a three-year cycle, the benefit of being part of a family of schools is that we regularly and rigorously self-evaluate to drive improvements where needed, and to develop good practice where we find it.”
Photo: BSCS staff and students celebrate the school’s recent ‘good’ grading by Ofsted. Standing is Steve Moir (headteacher); seated is Sharon Clark (head of primary phase).
Related link: BSCS Ofsted reports
This article originally appeared in the July/August 2018 issue of the Bradley Stoke Journal news magazine (on page 33). The magazine is delivered FREE, EVERY MONTH, to ALL 8,700 homes in Bradley Stoke. Phone 01454 300 400 to enquire about advertising or leaflet insertion.
