Staff at Parrs Wood High say Ofsted inspectors have gone 'completely overboard.'
The education watchdog's formal report has still to be published, but teachers were warned of the findings during a special meeting this week. The inspectors are recommending that the school be put into special measures because of disappointing test scores and management problems.
A team of inspectors visited the 2,000-pupil school for two days last week. The secondary was last inspected in 2001, when it was described as "a very good school, with some excellent features".
Since the MEN broke the story, a number of teachers have contacted us to express concerns over what has happened and have detailed splits and rivalries within the school staff.
Others suggested this year's disappointing SATs results were "a blip" and pointed to the fact that Parrs Wood students sit the tests a year earlier than their peers.
One member of staff claimed inspectors had been too harsh, saying: "Yes there are management problems, but threatening us with special measures is going completely overboard."
The school is led by headteacher David Ashley and associate headteacher Rachel Jones - who when appointed in 2005 described themselves as the school's "joint heads". There are also two deputies. Ofsted has cited problems with leadership as one of their key concerns. The MEN understands a number of staff have split loyalties between Mr Ashley and Ms Jones.
The school's management or governors - who include former Labour MP Lord Bradley and two Lib Dem councillors - have refused to comment.
Councillor David Sandiford, who represents the school's East Didsbury ward, said he was saddened by reports of the decline.
He said: "I appreciate there has been some confusion about the position of the deputy head. As far as I'm concerned it is a very great shame that the school finds itself in the position it is in with Ofsted.
Improvements
"It has got to change as quickly as possible. I hope everyone will work together to get the improvements. There is no reason why the problems cannot be addressed in a relatively short space of time."
The school, which includes a sixth form college, was regarded as a leading example of a successful city secondary.
Education bosses at Manchester City Council have vowed to look at all options to improve standards - including intervention powers to take control of the school.
Schools which are in special measures receive extra support and cash from local authorities and the government and face regular update visits from inspectors. Outside headteachers can also be brought in to help.
The national tests which are designed to ensure that children have the expected skills in English, maths and science are normally taken by children aged 14. But the majority of children at Parrs Wood sit tests aged 13.
This year's results showed a significant decline with only 69 per cent of youngsters having the expected English skills, compared with 73 per cent nationally.
In addition only 72 per cent of pupils showed the expected maths skills, as opposed to 77 per cent elsewhere.
While the scores were still higher than many other city schools, data showing how students have progressed from primary school showed Parrs Wood youngsters were among the least improved in the country.
The indicator - known as the school's value added score of 97.7 - was in the bottom five per cent of schools nationally.
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What did the governors think they were doing when they appointed a second headteacher? Ms Jones was acting head and was not appointed after two attempts. So why did the governors then appoint her after they had appointed David Ashley? It seems as though he was set up to fail; and what with all the division between the staff it was only a matter of time until Ofsted came along and gave the conspirators their golden opportunity. Where is the previous headteacher in all this? The school is not only a laughing stock in Manchester but also nationally. Ms Jones should have done the honourable thing and moved on to be a headmistress elsewhere. But therein lies another story.
In perspective - ask the students about that and you'll get a different answer.
the only area of blame is the council who allowed the grounds to be sold off.
before, the kids had nothing to do except play chicken on kingsway.
now, there's a cinema, bowling alley, burger bar, etc right on the old school fields.
I said it was a bad idea back then and look what's happened since.
When will councils learn to stop putting profit before education?
Perhaps we should send the councillors back to school ;-)
The teachers should have supported the management from the outset;they are now reaping what they have being sowing over the last couple of years.Serves them right!
Im a parrswood student and i think parrswood is a great school and if you dont go there then shut up cause you really dont know much. The teachers are great and respect the students.
oldhand1 makes a very good point. However, the hard working teachers are not to blame for any of this. They did not who to support- The official head teacher Mr Ashley; appointed by the Governing body, parents and LEA or the unofficial self appointed Head; Ms Jones. The LEA, Specialist schools trust, DFE and Governors all new of this situation but ignored it till now. They also have a lot of explaining to do.
They might, as you say, respect the students but the standard of teaching is diabolical. My son is a pupil there and they spend far too much time trying to re-organise the school and add different ways of splitting them up such as houses and groups than concentrating on the standard of teaching. My son has twice been awarded a certificate for 100% attendance when his attendance has been less than this and the time that he was away for a week they rang up to see where he was even though I had filled in all the relevant paperwork. In fact they found it left on a teachers desk a few days later. He has been offered drugs by other pupils and whilst there was amongst pupils that had to be evacuated due to the CS gas being let off in the school building.
As an ex pupil myself I was also horrified to see that one of the heads of departments was a teacher who systematically bullied myself and other pupils even to the extent of damaging coursework. I'm well aware it's a tricky situation to get the balance right between teaching and keeping order but I don't think they are succeeding at all. Also there is very little communication between the school and home apart from this week when they managed to get the 'it's not as bad as it looks, we're really doing an ok job' letter out to us parents within a day. Just shows what they can do when they make the effort.
Not surprised. School has coasted for years.When my son truanted they were unaware for months.When I got an attendance printout most teachers had not even taken the register.
All teachers have been divided by the new TLR pay structure.This structure in most schools is a complete mess and has increased wage costs.In addition my research shows a significant decline in behaviour of pupils in schools with many pupils complaining they cannot learn.Current sanctions used by schools are weak because Headteachers as a group do not stand up to LEAs government and theorists and say "No thats stupid we wont do it"In addition recent teaching is dominated by ridiculous data accumilation and handling.For example Manchester is currently collecting the attainment data on every secondary child in every subject every month.This alone is so much data its useless.The only thing proping up pupil data is dumbing down of subjects.Compare the new science exams with the previous ones its very obvious. Meanwhile a huge amount of money is wasted in education everyday.For example how can a secondary school send teachers to China Jamaica Lebanon etc all in one year and not have enough money for books.I would like to see the MEN investigate school budgets because all schools routinely misspend money and spend money allocated for specific purpose eg SEN or G and T on other unrelated areas. Any company running accounts like schools and LEAs would be shut down.
As someone who recently trained as a teacher at Parrswood I have seen first hand what goes on in the school. In reponse to some of the comments I have read I would say get your facts right instead of submitting personal suppostion and listening to hearsay and gutter gossip. Staff are, and always have been, united in the interest of the pupils and raising achievement despite the overwhelming pressure, increasing paperwork and frequent appalling behaviour. As in any other institution not everyone will see eye to eye all of the time. Unsure of Mr. Ashley's role in the school the teachers cannot and should not be blamed for this injust report. Full credit to the teachers who do an excellent job in the face of adversity; teaching is by no means an easy job in any school let alone Parrswood where the pupils seem to rule the roost and where the teachers' hands are tied by ineffective systems. My sincerest sympathy to the staff who do not deserve this.