School seeking re-inspection following critical Ofsted report

The Radclyffe School

Governors and senior leaders at The Radclyffe School say they are making plans for the school to be re-inspected at the earliest opportunity following the outcome of an Ofsted inspection in October 2021.

The latest inspection report - the publication of which has been delayed after it was the subject of an appeal and official complaint by the school - saw the school move from a grading of ‘Outstanding’ to ‘Requires Improvement’.

Headteacher John Cregg said: “We are disappointed with Ofsted’s judgement but everyone is determined to respond positively. The report makes clear where we are doing well and I am delighted that the behaviour and attitudes of our students was judged to be ‘Good’, as was the Personal Development curriculum provided by the school.

“It is important to reassure parents, carers and students that the school was already undertaking a planned process of further improvement and we are very happy that the inspection team has endorsed the school’s current vision and the structure of our current curriculum.

"We have been attempting to implement a large number of changes since my appointment in September 2019 but unfortunately the interruptions caused by the Covid pandemic – and the periods of school closure in particular – have had a huge impact on these. We are confident that these improvements will be fully in place by the time our next inspection comes around.”

Mr Cregg continued: "As a school we carefully considered our response to the report and submitted an appeal and complaint to Ofsted against the judgements for ‘Quality of Education’ and ‘Leadership & Management’. This was on the grounds that insufficient consideration was given to the impact of the pandemic on the school’s ability to implement its planned curriculum changes. Unfortunately, our complaint was not upheld but we will certainly request that the school is re-inspected in the next academic year (2022-23), by which time all year groups in the school will be benefitting from the new curriculum we introduced in 2019."

Sue Webb, Chair of the Governing Body, said, "All the staff of the school have worked incredibly hard over the last two years to provide the very best possible education for our students and we are disappointed that this is not fully recognised in the report. As governors, we remain confident that the leadership team’s clear plans for rebuilding the curriculum in this post-Covid era are robust and that the school will have successfully addressed all areas for development by the time we request a re-inspection next academic year."

Last year, the Oldham Chronicle spoke to an Oldham mum who felt the bullying of her daughter at the school was 'brushed under the carpet'.  The school apologised for failings and said they will be 'learning from this in the future'.

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