I AM writing with regard to the write-up of our recent Ofsted inspection. This was printed in the Thursday, November 16 issue of the BEN. I am very disappointed both with the coverage and the general tone of the article.
In 1998 you ran a high-profile article with large headlines and extensive coverage of our first inspection. This was no doubt because, although we passed the inspection, we were deemed to have serious weaknesses. You were happy to highlight the bad news.
Our second inspection, which took place in September 2000, reported findings on the substantial improvements, and the very high standards achieved by the end of key stage 2. There was much to be celebrated in that report. How disappointing, therefore, to find your newspaper's coverage of this inspection relegated to a rather small article tucked away in a corner of page 19. Not only that, the article very much undersold the school, and did not reflect the balance of the report.
Important findings were overlooked, as were the bulk of the Chairman's and my comments.
Consider the following:
Standards at the end of key stage 2 are well above average -- within the top 5pc of schools nationally.
Children behave well and have excellent relationships with adults.
Strengths far outweigh weaknesses and main features are the quality of teaching and the stimulating curriculum.
The school provides good value for money.
This is hardly the approach that I would expect from a local newspaper that should have the interests of the community at heart, and an agenda that reflects such a commitment. Sensationalism, I would have thought, could best be left to the lower end of the national press spectrum.
If the Bolton Evening News has an interest in promoting education in the Borough, as well as quite rightly drawing attention to concerns, then I feel that much more could have been done to highlight the substantial achievements of our school in the timespan since the previous inspection.
One final observation -- I have a school Governor (council representative) who has a friend who read the article of September 16. This person has no knowledge of or connection with the school. Her impression, on reading the article, is that the school has good and bad features in equal quantity, and that the inspection must not have been a particularly positive experience.
The damage is now done as regards the very different nature of the two reports on our school. I can only hope that when the primary school key stage 2 performance statistics are published, some recognition is made of our improvement --
1999 results 57pc better than 1998
2000 results 57pc better than 1998.
Children achieving above average level 5 --
1999 46pc better than 1998
2000 48pc better than 1998.
E L Campbell
Headteacher
St William Of York RC Primary School, Nugent Road, Bolton.
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