School ‘must do more to improve’
CALDER High School has been told it must do more to improve following a visit by Ofsted inspectors.
A team from Ofsted conducted a monitoring visit last month to check on progress being made since the school was issued with a notice to improve earlier in the year.
In his monitoring visit report, Her Majesty’s Inspector Patrick Geraghty said: “Having considered all the evidence, I am of the opinion that at this time the school is making inadequate progress in addressing the issues for improvement and in raising the students’ progress.
“The school is making inadequate progress because students continue to underperform.
“Unvalidated GCSE results for 2011/12 at five A* to C including English and mathematics were significantly below those for 2010/11.”
But he added: “The new senior leadership team have clearly identified areas for urgent improvement and have moved with alacrity to develop strategies to tackle underperformance at Key Stage Four.
“Staff, students and parents express strong confidence in the current leadership.”
There was criticism of the tracking and monitoring systems for not being sufficiently robust.
Assessment across the curriculum is too variable and lacks a consistency in approach and rigour, he said.
Inspectors undertook a series of classroom visits to assess the learning and progress made by students.
“The learning walks provided evidence of lessons in which students were actively engaged in learning,” Mr Geraghty said.
“In these well-paced lessons, students were being stretched and challenged. However, in some sessions students were not sufficiently challenged to contribute and develop their ideas.”
Student behaviour and attendance has improved.
There was also praise for the Parental Engagement At Calder High group.
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Friday 24 May 2013
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