Heber School Ofsted

[LondonMix]

Does anyone know when the next Ofsted inspection will take place? Its been almost two years since the very controversial downgrading of the primary school and I thought that in such circumstances, schools were to be re-inspected fairly quickly.

[redjam]

They are due to have an inspection before the end of this term - you're right, they have to have it within two years of the previous one and if memory serves the previous inspection was right at the beginning of September 2013. For understandable reasons the school are keen to have another as soon as possible as they contested the last one, so it's a shame they've been made to wait the full two years. They had two externally adjudicated 'Teaching and Learning Reviews' in January and September last year, which both found the school to be 'good or better'. The reports are up on the school's website.

[LondonMix]

I tend not to be a conspiracy theorist but after the various shenanigans with the DfE regarding the Harris Nunhead primary, I?d almost suspect the delay was intentional as keeping the school at a 3 rating would have helped bolster Harris Nunheads argument for the need to open in ED.

Hopefully, Heber does well in its next inspection and can adequately prove they?ve addressed the issues heighted in the report.

[minder]

Ofsted do seem to have their own rules.

Only yesterday I'm sure I was able to read the Dulwich Village Infants School and the Dulwich Hamlets Juniors School Ofsted reports online. Both had their last Ofsted inspections in 2008!

Now the DHJS Ofsteds over the last 10 years or so have disappeared to be replaced by something dated 2012 mentioning an academy.

[Otta]

Ofsted are a poisonous organisation.

[Dulwich Born And Bred]

I got to say I agree with the OFSTED report regarding Heber.

I would be shocked if they had a grade 2 or more given my current experience of it .

My child is leaving the school to attend a new one in September.

[LondonMix]

Really? Why is that?

[vesti]

Honestly.

Everybody who has a child at a school will have a view on the school; good, bad, whatever.

Mostly they are full of decent people doing a decent job.

Constant airing on social media no help whatsoever in my opinion; usually the voice of the disgruntled few whilst the happier masses are just getting on with it and have no need to keep picking at things.

[Dulwich Born And Bred]

I find most cannot be bothered to complain , they do a good job of it at the gates but never take it further .

Regardless , I'm interested to see what the ofsted rating will be this time .

[landsberger]

Ofsted inspectors are a varied bunch, and include existing heads and staff within and outside the borough. They GENERALLY get the overall impression of a school right (i.e. it's rare to find a school that is failing being rated as outstanding) but I think the details often go awry and there is certainly pressure on Ofsted to constantly raise the bar and fail more schools.

I've known schools go into special measures on technicalities, and ended up joined to an academy chain as a consequence. The new government will automatically convert any school which gets Requires Improvement into an academy - though quite what they will do with the academies present in the same category is anyone's guess.

[LondonMix]

Actually more schools are rated as good or outstanding than used to be the case so overall Ofsted aren't downgrading most schools but rather the opposite.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-30319949

I have no idea if they do a good or accurate job at assessing schools though. I'm just correcting a point of fact.

[yeknomyeknom]

Any update on this? If it is true ofsted have to test within 2 hrs, this should have just happened in Septemeber. Does anyone know? Fingers crossed for improvements.

[redjam]

Yes, they had the inspection last week - result due in a couple of weeks.

Fingers crossed for them, yes - they had great Sats results last year (actually they've had great results for several years) so I hope it goes in their favour this time. In my experience it's a good school, but what do I know, I'm just a parent!

[yeknomyeknom]

Cool, fingers crossed

[klove]

Any news on the latest inspection? Nothing on the Ofsted website...

[yeknomyeknom]

I was just looking too. Excited and hopeful it's better news.

[kristymac1]

There has been a delay in publishing the report apparently, was supposed to be released on Oct 22, hopefully it will be released on Monday.

[Reg Smeeton]

Congratulations Heber on getting a 'Good' Rating from Ofsted across the board. Puts right the travesty of the previous assessment.

[redjam]

Yay, really good news. Well done Heber - it's a great report. A much better reflection of the reality of the school. It's not yet up on the Ofsted site but I imagine it will be in the next day or so.

[alfie]

Very good news. And it's already on the school website.

[Earl Aelfheah]

Good news

[LondonMix]

That's great. It looks like with some additional work on transferring writing skills to other subject, the school will get an Outstanding at its next inspection. Its great to hear the achievement gap between pupils has been addressed so adequately.

[landsberger]

LondonMix Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> That's great. It looks like with some additional

> work on transferring writing skills to other

> subject, the school will get an Outstanding at its

> next inspection. Its great to hear the

> achievement gap between pupils has been addressed

> so adequately.

I wish I could be sure it was that scientific, Londonmix.

[yeknomyeknom]

Ok. This won't be popular. I know Heber is a good school and has lots of fans. I was hoping for good news, and for sure the news is good. When the "needs improvement" report came out a year or so back, everyone was up in arms about how unfair it was. So to be honest with you, I was hoping for good but also an outstanding or two. You would imagine having a lot to prove (and if the previous grade was so unfair) any improvement would stand a chance to hit outstanding. There are a lot of local schools hitting the mark and I had hoped for just a little bit more from Heber in all honesty. Probably not fair, and I feel bad saying it, but I had been hoping.