Parents of pupils at Oughterside Primary School are learning about a major improvement agenda at the school including an accelerated learning programme, improving health and safety standards and a new outreach agenda to build on relations with the local community and parents.
The foundation school, which is based just outside Aspatria in Allerdale, has now been placed in special measures after failing its Ofsted inspection in July.
Cumbria County Council will now be actively intervening to oversee and support the improvement programme through a clearly focused local authority statement of support, which will be delivered to Ofsted by the end of this week. The ISP (Improving Schools Programme) being introduced at the school is an intensive local authority-driven scheme where school improvement officers and primary national strategy consultants visit the school extremely regularly to monitor progress and offer advice.
Oughterside Primary School's unvalidated SAT results for Key Stages 1 and 2 show the school outperforms both Cumbrian and national averages in KS1 reading, writing and maths and KS2 English, KS2 level 5+ maths and KS2 level 4+ science - so Ofsted's criticisms in the report were not centred on pupil attainment. However, the Ofsted inspector said the progress of individual pupils must be improved and the school was not meeting statutory health and safety standards for safeguarding children.
Failure to meet statutory health and safety standards means a school is automatically put into an Ofsted category (either 'notice to improve' or 'special measures'). The inspector's concerns at Oughterside centred on pupils being failed to be met off the school bus and a failure to complete the required paperwork surrounding CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) checks. The school and the local authority have now taken immediate and effective action to address this. A full health and saftey audit has been undertaken and new measures already introduced include fully updating all CRB paperwork, a new system for meeting children off the bus and supervising children before the start of the school day and training for all staff in child protection and safeguarding.
Peter McGaw, Cumbria County Council's principal school improvement officer, said:
"I am disappointed that Oughterside has been placed in special measures, but am confident the school will be able to address the key issues by engaging with us and working in partnership to achieve the best results for pupils. I am confident that the school will be out of special measures by the end of this academic year."
Nick Sutton, Oughterside Primary School's headteacher, said:
"We were already addressing many of the issues raised prior to inspection. Since then we've been working extensively with the local authority and are pleased with the support being offered. We are working hard ro resolve the issues identified so there will be positive outcomes at the earliest possible opportunity."
Notes
Oughterside Primary School is the only primary school in Cumbria in special measures. There are three secondary schools (Alfred Barrow, Ulverston Victoria High School and Millom) and one pupil referral unit (West Cumbria Learning Centre) currently in special measures.
ENDS
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