Brownhills school's Ofsted rating slips to inadequate
A school has been rated inadequate and ordered to improve after education bosses raised a number of concerns.
St Bernadette’s Catholic Primary School, in Brownhills, had been rated ‘good’ by Ofsted for the past 13 years but its rating plummeted when inspectors last visited the school.
It fell from ‘good’ to ‘inadequate’ in three out of five areas.
This includes effectiveness of leadership and management, quality of teaching, learning and assessment and outcomes for pupils while personal development, behaviour and welfare along with early years provision remained as ‘good’.
This is a step down from their last inspection report in 2013, when the school, which has 213 pupils, aged 3 to 11, were rated as ‘good’ in all five areas.
The Ofsted inspector found that in 2017 pupils’ progress in reading, writing and mathematics was in the bottom 10 per cent of schools nationally.
Teaching of key stage 2 was found to not be good enough because improvement plans focus on the right things but leaders do not check the impact of their actions.
The most able students were seen to not have enough opportunities to work at greater depth in English and mathematics while the least able pupils are over-reliant on adult support and do not develop their independence enough.
But staff were praised for their teaching of key stage 1, their safeguarding training, and noted that their curriculum was broad and interesting.
Ofsted inspector Andrew Orgill said: “Leaders and governors have been too slow to improve outcomes for pupils in key stage 2.
"Pupils’ progress in reading and mathematics is inadequate in some year groups. The school’s system for checking on pupils’ learning, while improving, is not wholly reliable.
"As a result, leaders and teachers do not have an accurate understanding of how well pupils are doing.
Deputy head teacher Siobhan Moran said: “St Bernadette’s Catholic School is pleased that Ofsted highlighted many positive and effective aspects of the school. The school is swiftly addressing actions needed to improve.
“School leaders have had meetings with the local authority and the Birmingham Diocese to implement a package of support around the school. We have already invested in an assessment scheme that monitors progress more rigorously."
