EAST TILBURY primary school became the latest Thurrock school to be told by Ofsted that it has to improve.
Government watchdog Ofsted visited the school last month and made the following observations on the school.
The school, which is now run under the St Clere’s Academy “umbrella”, is placing great faith in the highly acclaimed head, Louise Coates, turning the school around. Ms Coates was the former head of Bonnygate primary in South Ockendon where she was shortlisted for a teacher of the year award in 2013.
The “criticisms” were:
1.Not enough teaching is good or better.
2.Some teachers do not accurately measure pupils’ progress. This means that they do not always know what help pupils need in order to improve.
3.Disabled pupils, those with special educational needs and the most able make uneven progress in English and mathematics.
4. The school does not have strong subject leadership in English and mathematics driving improvements in these subjects.
5. Pupils do not make as much progress in mathematics as they do in English because they do not always use basic skills, such as times tables, to help them solve problems.
6. Standards in spelling, punctuation and grammar are not as strong as other aspects of pupils’ writing, especially in subjects other than English.
The examples of good practice were:
1. Pupils known to be eligible for free school meals do well because of the extra help they receive.
2. Governors hold school leaders to account for their decisions and for pupils’ achievement.
3. Pupils are making better progress this year in writing creatively.
4. Pupils are friendly and well behaved. They say that they feel safe in the school.
5. The new headteacher’s strong leadership has led to significant improvements in the quality of teaching.
“The Governors have placed a high priority on improving both the quality of teaching and the facilities at the school and this inspection proves that this is paying off handsomely.”
East Tilbury Junior School is an academy school within the St. Clere’s Co-operative Academy Trust – a multi-academy trust that also includes St. Clere’s School, Stanford Le Hope Primary School, Thameside Primary School, and East Tilbury Infants School. Paul Griffiths, the Chief Executive of the Trust said, “We are pleased that the inspectors agreed that the school shared a clear vision for the school’s development.
“The appointment of an outstanding head teacher in Mrs Louise Coates is rapidly transforming the school into one with significant improvements in the quality of teaching and improving achievement for pupils.”
“The school is proposing to amalgamate with the Infants School to form a new Primary School for East Tilbury from September, and together with the support of the Trust and Thurrock Council this has been rightly recognised by OFSTED as a school with the capacity to improve rapidly.”
Outstanding: None
Good: Arthur Bugler Junior, Gateway Academy Free
Requires Improvement
Little Thurrock, St Josephs, East Tilbury, Lansdowne Academy, Horndon-on-the-Hill, Somers Heath, Holy Cross, Stifford Clays
Special Measures
Manor
You can find the full Ofsted report if you click here
Hmmm, maybe if OFSTED were also inspected they would get the same result. A lot of OFSTED inspectors are not fit for purpose, the whole education department needs to be torn down and rebuild from the bottom up.
We need to look at other successful countries and how their primary children are taught and stop these bloody stupid league tables where lessons are only geared towards the test answers