The headteacher of Abbeywood Community School, recently placed into ‘special measures’ by Ofsted, says he has received “positive feedback” from an inspector who visited the school last week.
Writing in the latest edition of the school newsletter, Dave Baker reports:
“We had a visit from Ofsted on Tuesday last week; an inspector visited for the day in order to look at the plan for improvement which we have put together in conjunction with the local authority and to consider our actions since the inspection took place in December.
It is reassuring to be able to report that the visit went well and that the plan was deemed fit for purpose.”
The inspector who visited the school wrote in his report received this week:
“The school has acted with urgency and has put in place a series of appropriate actions and plans to address the areas for improvement identified by the inspection on 7‐8 December 2011.”
Mr Baker adds that the school is expecting to have a monitoring visit from Ofsted soon, which it is anticipated will be after Easter but could be before.
In the meantime, Mr Baker says the school will:
“… maintain our relentless focus on creating the right climate and culture for learning which is especially vital for the older year groups who are working hard to complete their courses and in preparation for their exams.”
The newsletter also reveals that 154 places have this week been offered to students looking to join Year 7 at Abbeywood in September.
The figure represents a shortfall on the 180 place quota set by South Gloucestershire Council in its 2012/2013 secondary school admissions prospectus.
The new intake of students will be invited to a meeting on the evening of Tuesday 13th March.
Ofsted made a monitoring visit to the school on 15th & 16th May. In a letter sent to parents/carers today, Headteacher Dave Baker writes:
“You will hopefully be aware that this week we have had our first monitoring visit since the Ofsted inspection last December. The purpose of the monitoring visits is to assess the school’s progress since inspectors decided that the school required special measures. We knew that the inspection team would not acknowledge good progress until they see improved GCSE results this summer as evidence, so we were pleased to be told that progress was satisfactory in all aspects. We were especially pleased that the lessons observed showed that 70% of teaching was good or better which is a significant improvement on last time and one which I hope you will find reassuring.”