Salford’s Labour administration are - for reasons entirely beyond my comprehension - still committed to the closure of St George’s RC High School here in Walkden. It is a popular, successful and extremely oversubscribed school that is highly valued by the local community.
At the end of November, St George’s underwent an OFSTED inspection. Rather than analyse it page-by-page or post selected extracts, here is the first page entitled “overall effectiveness” (which is effectively a summary of the rest of the report), in full and unedited. The emphasis is mine rather than that of the inspectorate.
This is a good school with a number of outstanding features. Achievement and standards are good. Students make good progress from Year 7 to 11 and outstanding progress in mathematics. Over a sustained period examination results demonstrate year-on-year improvement. Staff have established a strong aspirational culture where success is celebrated. The school acknowledges underperformance in a small minority of departments and has robust strategies in place to promote improvement.
Personal well-being and development are outstanding. The school provides an environment where students are safe and able to advance their self-confidence and motivation. Behaviour is exemplary. Students enjoy school. Teaching is good with some outstanding aspects. However, there is some inconsistency in the quality of marking and detailed feedback to students. An improving curriculum is now linking into a wide range of external partnerships and opportunities for students. Progress to further education is good. The school offers outstanding care, guidance and support. A culture of responsibility and engagement enriches staff and students alike.
The self-evaluation demonstrates that management understands the school’s strengths and areas for improvement. The school has effectively tackled the issues raised at the last inspection. There is excellent leadership from the headteacher and his senior management team particularly in driving the strong improvement agenda. Much middle management is outstanding and they effectively tackle underachievement through robust action plans and evaluations. Governance is very good and committed to maintaining and developing high standards and very close links with the local community. There are exemplary links between the school and its community as well as strong support from parents. The school acknowledges the need to provide adequate supervision of students when they are engaged in experiments in the refurbished science laboratory. Because of measured and sustained improvement over the last four years inspectors judged that the school has outstanding capacity to improve.
Does that sound to you like a school that the Council should be closing down?
I’d like to place on record my own congratulations to the staff and pupils at St George’s who have done a fantastic job under a lot of pressure and scrutiny. Well done.
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