A SHOREHAM head teacher has spoken out following a downgrading in his school’s Ofsted rating.
St Nicolas and St Mary CofE Primary School, in Eastern Avenue, has been graded as good for its overall effectivenss, having previously been marked as outstanding.
But head David Etherton said Ofsted had acknowledged clearly in the report that the school had actually improved since the last inspection in July 2010.
The difference had come because the Department of Education and Ofsted had changed the criteria.
“They moved the bar very, very high, so it is impossible,” he said. “This year, no primary school in West Sussex has got outstanding.
“That is quite significant. It is like having no gold medal at the Olympics.
“I think it is a policy that will backfire because for the last few years, as an outstanding school, other teachers have come to learn from us about excellent practice in the classroom. Now, we won’t have that outstanding label and no school in the last year has, so no-one knows who to go to for best practice.”
He said the Ofsted report noted the curriculum, teaching and attainment had all improved.
But it stated there was not yet enough outstanding teaching to ensure all pupils made exceptional progress, and pupils do not make as much progress in writing as they do in reading and mathematics.
Mr Etherton added: “One of the new things is that all teaching has to be good and much outstanding.
“They want 70 to 75 per cent to be outstanding. I would say our teaching is two-thirds outstanding, so we feel that we are a whisker away.”
On the second point, he said the school was one of the best in the county for maths, and writing was 10 per cent above average.
Mr Etherton said the maths standards of some of the children was better than at some secondary schools and in a recent competition, no other primary school achieved as highly as St Nicolas and St Mary.
A meeting was held with parents to discuss the report and explain the changes.
One parent asked if the school would be ‘stuck on good’ for three years, and Mr Etherton told them ‘no, we are still outstanding’.
Many parents have also commented via Facebook, where the general feeling is the children have done exceptionally well and the Ofsted report is not going to affect that view.
“We will continue being an excellent school anyway,” added Mr Etherton.
The school did achieve one grading of outstanding, for the behaviour and safety of pupils. It was noted their attitudes to learning are exemplary.