Agenda item - School OFSTED Presentation

Update on Ofsted Inspections held since the last meeting of the Committee.

9.1              Mark Storey, Head of Education, Standards and Achievement, gave a brief overview of the Ofsted Update and highlighted various information taken from 11 visits. It was noted that Queen’s Park, Dorothy Stringer, St Mary’s remained good and Tarnerland was outstanding. Brackenbury required improvement. Carlton Hill, the Connected hub remained good, Hangleton and Mile Oak were awaiting judgements due to being subjected to section 5 inspections. It was further stated that 2 monitoring visits took place and that no new grade was alluded to at this stage.

9.2              Andrew Wealls requested officer’s remarks on the reasons for low number of outstanding schools in Brighton. He further noted that it appeared that BHCC favoured non disadvantaged schools.

9.3              Pinaki Ghoshal, Executive Director - Families Children & Safeguarding, stated that some schools were judged to be outstanding from inspections from 3 different frameworks ago, current schools were unable to maintain the requisite standards expected from the new framework.

9.4              Jo Lyons, Assistant Director Education & Skills, clarified that there was a wider range between schools at the bottom to the top end of the spectrum. It was noted that there were many outstanding schools, however focus across the board needed to be maintained.

9.5              Mark Storey stated that due to the technicalities in the Ofsted inspection process; an outstanding judgement was not possible to be attained on the day. He further clarified that it was not possible to speculate on the exact reason for the results.

9.6              Councillor Caroline Penn stated that the public’s understanding of data and the resulting assumption was key, she gave by way of example; the conditions and technical measures under which a judgement of outstanding by Ofsted had changed and that it could be misleading to report on outstanding schools due to the change in metrics where it had been easier to attain in previous years.

9.7              Councillor Alex Phillips enquired if the if the result on Brackenbury was expected, she further enquired if Hangleton and Mile Oak were expected to receive the same result.

9.8              Mark Storey clarified that the Brackenbury response was expected however a firm response in regards to Hangleton and Mile Oak could not be commented on, it was further noted that Brackenbury had a anew head-teacher and that the governance had changed.

9.9              Councillor Jacqueline O’Quinn stated that she was pleased with the current status of the Connected Hub

9.10           Martin Jones stated that it was necessary for schools who had received a judgement of outstanding to be mentioned.

9.11           Councillor Nick Taylor requested that Brackenbury be brought to the next meeting. It was stated that the report showed that people were not reaching their full potential, assurances were requested that people were being challenged,

9.12           Mark Storey stated that there was a lot of feedback taken from inspections. It was further noted that there was no particular pattern of mal-education or lack thereof across the City.

9.13           Amanda Mortensen, Parent Governor Representative, stated that it was an error to imply that a judgement of outstanding could not be achieved within 1 day.  She further enquired what local authorities outside of Brighton were doing I response to this.

9.14           Jo Player stated that many improvement plans were being undertaken.

9.15           Mark Storey stated that the framework changed towards the end of 2017, it was stated that it was technically possible to achieve a judgement of outstanding in 1 day, however this was highly unusual. A brief overview of what can happen following an inspection on 1 day was provided.

9.16           The Chair stated there were a vast majority of schools attaining good judgements and a good percentage of schools currently standing as good or outstanding. The Chair concluded that Brighton was above the national average.

9.17           RESOLVED – that the report be noted.