Ofsted issues heavy criticism to Scarborough schools

Ofsted education inspectors have issued new, damning reports of three Scarborough schools.
Three Scarborough schools have received their damning Ofsted reports.Three Scarborough schools have received their damning Ofsted reports.
Three Scarborough schools have received their damning Ofsted reports.

Braeburn Primary and Nursery School has been placed into special measures following an Ofsted review.

Braeburn’s last Ofsted inspection was in March 2012, when it was still an Infant and Nursery School, and was established as a good school.

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An amalgamation in September 2014 included taking on Key Stage 2 students meaning it now has 446 children on the books and saw significant changes in staffing.

The report reads: “The quality of education provided is inadequate. Staff turbulence, including long periods of staff absence, has impacted negatively on the quality of teaching.

"A legacy of underperformance continues to hamper the school’s rate of improvement.”

Governors had been found to be too slow to fulfil their legal responsibility to follow the statutory national curriculum. However senior leaders, including governors, have an “overgenerous impression of the school’s effectiveness, including its capacity to improve”.

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Mike Tilling, Braeburn’s chair of governors, said: “Our results show we are making improvements in our school and we are saddened by the inspectors’ judgement.

"But we will act swiftly to bring about improvements in line with the Ofsted, as it is our intention to come out of special measures as quickly as possible.”

George Pindar School has been told it needs to “rapidly improve the quality of teaching, so that it is consistently good across all subjects”.

Inspectors found pupils’ current progress remains weak while behaviour is inadequate and requires urgent improvement during an inspection on June 22-23.

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The report reads: “Some pupils exhibit poor conduct both in classrooms and around school. As a consequence, over time incidents of exclusion have been high. For the last three years, attendance has been low, particularly for disadvantaged pupils.”

The quality of teaching at the school needs to “rapidly improve” after inadequate progress across a range of subjects including English, maths and science.

The 625-pupil secondary’s overall grade rated as inadequate by Ofsted, falling from the requires improvement rating it received in 2015.

Julian Leader, headteacher, said: “We are confident that we can take the school forward and together with our partners we have great ambition for our young people. We are very excited about the future of the school.”

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Meanwhile Gladstone Road Primary School received a requires improvement grade by Ofsted from an inspection on July 5-6.

Inspectors identified the curriculum is not designed well enough to ensure that pupils develop their knowledge and skills in subjects other than reading, writing and maths.

Despite the pupil premium, additional funding to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils, having a positive impact in Key Stage 1, inspectors found the same support was not being provided at Key Stage 2 level.

Keith Wright, headteacher, said: “We are disappointed but understand what the inspectors had found and are relieved it is nothing worse.

"The report is quite critical in some places, but I do not disagree with their findings.”

Go to the individual school’s websites to read the reports in full.