Schools' progress rated 'inadequate' (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Schools' progress rated 'inadequate'

11:00am Friday 2nd December 2011 in Education By Emily Roberts

TWO Basingstoke schools have been told that they have made inadequate progress since they were last visited by education watchdogs.

Both Park View Junior School and Winklebury Junior School had a monitoring visit from Ofsted inspectors in September, after being graded as “satisfactory” last year.

A new report said that Winklebury Junior School, in Willoughby Way, had made “inadequate progress in making improvements” since its last full inspection in June 2010.

The same was said about Park View School, in Pinkerton Road, South Ham, which had its last full inspection in May 2010.

The report for Winklebury said that the school has gone through “significant changes” since the last inspection, after the head- teacher joined the school in September 2010 as head of both the infant and junior schools.

It added: “Most members of the teaching staff have joined the school since its last inspection.

“The school roll has continued to fall and this has led to a reduction in the number of classes to five.

“New systems and policies have now been introduced, but many of these are at an early stage of implementation and have not had a significant impact on improving provision.”

The report said that the school has made satisfactory progress in “demonstrating a better capacity for sustained improvement”.

Park View’s latest report said that the slight upward trend in results at Key Stage 2 between 2007 and 2010 was reversed in 2011, while results for Year 6 pupils fell “dramatically to significantly below national attainment levels”.

The number of pupils gaining Levels 4 and 5 in English fell by 19 per cent and 11 per cent respectively. Attainment in writing was also low, with the number of pupils gaining Level 4 dropping by 15 per cent in 2011.

The report said: “Leaders were rightly disappointed with results for Year 6 pupils in 2011 and, working with the governing body, have begun to review why attainment fell last year.

“Leaders accept that improving the quality of writing in all year groups is an urgent priority. Progress in English is hampered by insufficient opportunity to engage pupils in writing because teachers talk for too long.”

Lynn Clement, headteacher at Park View, said: “We were very disappointed with our 2011 SATs results, especially writing, which brought our overall results down. We knew this would leave us vulnerable during our monitoring visit, but we are pleased with the tone of the report, which is generally positive and captures our achievements to date.

“She (the inspector) acknowledges we are heading in the right direction.”

Christine Clayton, headteacher at Winklebury Junior, said: “We were disappointed to get the inadequate progress in making improvements but are very pleased that the HMI recognised that we are in a position to demonstrate a better capacity for improvement.”