Three years ago, Duke Street Primary School received praise in the Ofsted Report (July 2007). At that time, the Chorley Guardian reported in an article :
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Headteacher Andrew Kidd explained: "We just had to unpack everything and put it back on the walls. We could have just explained what was happening but we are proud of what we do here and we wanted to show them."
"We are pleased we did because the inspection went extremely well and we were told a real strength of the school was its vibrant learning environment." |
Today, a different story is presented in the release of the latest Ofsted Report :
| "However, continuing inconsistencies in the quality and effectiveness of teaching are having an impact on pupils' progress. The good practice in some year groups is not consistently embedded across the school and, consequently, pupils' progress is satisfactory overall rather than good. While the school gathers large amounts of data, these are not always presented in a way that that readily shows the progress made by groups of pupils or year groups, or informs clear targets for improvement." |
The latest report indicates that the school performance has dropped a full grade from 2 to 3, highlighting strengths but also clearly identifying failures.
The report refers to inconsistencies in the quality and effectiveness of teaching, including the use of assessment to support learning and the use of additional adults in classes.
The report does not speculate on the reasons that underpin this decline. A contributory factor must be that, over recent years, Duke Street has lost the core of its long-standing staff :
| Mrs. Callandar, Mrs. Dring, Ms. Ishard, Mrs. Larne, Mrs. Markland, Mrs. Marquis, Mrs. McGloughlin, Mrs. Poppleton, Mrs. Procter, Mrs. Quinton, Mr. Roberts, Mrs. Watts |
The dramatic loss of these teachers was highlighted in Cuckoo In The Nest. Duke Street needed the strength and experience of these dedicated and committed professionals to form a united, cohesive and well-organized team. They formed the very backbone of the school.
It is clear that Duke Street is on 'the slippery slope' ! Maybe, you as parents should be asking who is accountable and what measures will be taken to improve the situation ?
1 comment:
We were going to send our child to this school next term but I'm glad that I came across your site. I think that your opinion is a good one. The recent Ofsted report is far from good. Little wonder that the school isn't keen to publicise it and that they still refer to the one from 3 years ago on their site.
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