Issue - meetings

Report ED15057

The Portfolio Holder introduced a report that provided an update of recent Ofsted and school improvement activity across the Borough.  Since March 2014, there had been five Ofsted Inspections and no Ofsted monitoring visits.  St Olave’s and St Saviour’s Grammar School had been judged as ‘Outstanding’ in its Ofsted inspection.  Bickley Primary School and Edgebury Primary School had been judged as ‘Good’ in their Ofsted Inspections.  Oaklands Primary School and Southborough had been judged as ‘Requires Improvement’ in their Ofsted Inspections.

In considering the report, a Member highlighted that the most recent Ofsted Inspections for Bromley academy schools rated ‘Outstanding’ were often several years out of date, and underlined the need to ensure that these schools maintained the quality of their provision.  The Head of Schools, Early Years Commissioning and Quality Assurance Education confirmed that the Local Authority’s school improvement activity was concentrated on Local Authority Maintained schools, but that work was undertaken by the Local Authority to gather information on academy school performance where possible, with concerns raised with the Secretary of State.  Most academies still used the Local Authority to undertake their statutory moderation, which provided some information about a school’s performance and the soundness of their judgement.  The Local Authority charged academies for accessing this service.  A regional commissioner had recently been appointed by the Department for Education to oversee academy and free school provision, and the Local Authority would be working closely with the regional commissioner to support the highest standard of provision across all Bromley schools into the future.

The Chairman requested that a further update be reported to the meeting of Education PDS Committee on 5^th November 2014 once the regional commissioner was in post.

RESOLVED that recent Ofsted and school improvement activity in the Borough be noted.