A HEADTEACHER has been criticised and his deputy praised in a damning inspection report that placed their school in special measures.
Ofsted inspectors said David Clifford, head of Counthill School in Oldham, lacked a "clear strategic vision" for improving the pupils' quality of education.
But they praised a recently-appointed deputy head who, they say, manages much of the school's day-to-day organisation.
The inspectors said the school's senior leaders have not, as a whole, demonstrated the capacity to drive forward change "with sufficient rigour".
The report also stated that the school had broken health and safety regulations by allowing pupils to cross a road to a sports area with little or no supervision and by locking some school buildings at lunchtimes.
The secondary school will be monitored closely for two years and will have to provide a detailed improvement plan if it is to be taken out of special measures.
The inspectors said the school has "significant weaknesses at a senior leadership level" and was failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education.
Unsatisfactory
Counthill, which has 1,273 pupils including many from poorer backgrounds, was found to have a number of highly effective teachers.
But the quality of teaching was rated "unsatisfactory" overall.
The quality of learning and achievement, and pupils' attitudes and behaviour, was also labelled unsatisfactory.
The number of pupils getting five or more A* to C grades has dropped since the previous inspection, even though those gaining five or more A* to G grades was above the national average at 91 per cent.
Attendance was below the national average and punctuality was poor.
Initiatives have been introduced in a bid to raise attainment, but inspectors found little evidence of targets being used in a structured classroom plan.
Nick Hudson, Oldham council's assistant director of education and culture, said: "The report notes that improvements have been introduced already, however, we appreciate that more work needs to be done.
"I am confident that the progress we are making is enough to move Counthill out of special measures in due course."
Comments
Login or Register to comment
ITS NOT THE HEAD TEACHER'S FAULT NOR THE STAFF. I BLAME THE STUDENTS
I agree that the students are quite high in the list of factors acting against the schools success but thats not the entire story. There is a certain pointless ness to some of the staff, eg. Financial directors, that seem to just wonder the hallways all day, and the so called "senior management" who I have not seen do anything so far. On the other hand there are some members of staff that show their utility eg. Dr. Williams, who is always out and about in the school involving himself in whats happening, I have never once seem him sat around doing nothing. Another member of staff to go on the good list would be Julie Rogers, who also involves herself in most aspects of the pupils activities. The majority of the pupils do, in ways, respect these 2 members of staff, well behaved students respect them and not so well behaved students fear them, as they have the ability and the will to carry out the neccessary punishments required. Certain teachers have also shown the poor standards of teaching eg. an IT teacher who does not have a clue what she is doing, she makes the students use simple programs on the computers, which do not educate the students as much as they should do, while another allows his students to use more intricate ones. There is also a problem with one of the language teachers, she had to keep a whole class behind for not completing coursework but many people agree that its the teachers fault if a whole class could not complete the work. As another person on here commented, none of this is directly Mr Cliffords fault, the lack of staff support aided the schools downfall.