Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Downhills Primary School headteacher resigns as school fails Ofsted inspection
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by JulieB on
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Oh that is very sad news, I was really hoping the Ofsted would go well. I hope the governors can still win their fight against the forced Accademy, I'm sure they'll be doing all that they can and seem to have made a start already.
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Permalink Reply by JumpingtheWaves on
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What has happened at Downhills School is absolutely scandalous and it is about time that someone looked a lot more closely at Ofsted. Impartial, independent, reliable body? Methinks not. Call me obtuse, but how can a school that received the following comments at its monitoring inspection in September 2011 descend into Special Measures at its January 2012 inspection (within the space of barely four months)? And I quote:
...'there is a clear trend of improvement. School data and pupils’ books indicate improvements in attainment, particularly in Key Stage 1. Progress has accelerated in some year groups since the previous inspection because after significant changes to staffing in the autumn term, the school has a core of experienced senior staff with high levels of expertise. They are providing effective help to colleagues which has enabled them to improve their practice. As a result satisfactory improvements have been made in moving the quality of provision on since the previous inspection....
In the most effective practice, the teachers planned outcomes that were challenging for the pupils and they drew high quality responses from them. The teaching was well structured and delivered at a suitably brisk pace. Varied and well-chosen strategies were used. Some incorporated a good range of learning styles that successfully engaged the pupils and enhanced their understanding. The teachers’ expectations were well pitched and modified to meet the pupils’ different needs. The pupils’ learning was regularly evaluated and fostered by the teachers’ good subject knowledge...
'Since the previous inspection, rigorous procedures have been implemented for tracking pupil progress. The development of these clear systems for monitoring pupils’ progress, together with well-focused support to meet the needs of pupils, is beginning to have a positive impact on pupils’ progress. '
Of course, the official report from January has yet to be released (that should make interesting reading!), so it is hard to make proper comparisons, but either the school has been led up the garden path by the September inspection team (in which case, heads should roll for incompetence) or it has been sold down the river at its most recent inspection. Know what I'd put my money on...
In the meantime, we have lost our respected and much-loved Headteacher, Leslie Church, a caring, committed and principled leader who could teach Michael Gove a thing or two. As a parent at Downhills I attended Leslie's final assembly with the children, an experience that was both extremely poignant, yet uplifting. Staff, parents (me included) and pupils shed tears aplenty but there were also huge cheers and whoops of joy for Leslie, especially from the kids, which was delightful to hear. I was particularly struck by the calm dignity that Leslie showed as he encouraged the children to stand tall against any future taunts of 'Special Measures' (he'd even thought up a fantastic rhyme that we all joined in with) but he also urged that we 'do not look back in anger'. Generous and wise words that many will struggle to take on board in the coming weeks. The governors, parents and staff at Downhills must stand strong, but the opposition to the forced academy most certainly goes on.
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Alison, what has happened at Downhills School between September 2011 and January 2012 is that Sir Michael Wilshaw was appointed Ofsted Head in November 2011. Simples.
Arch-Academy man, poster boy for the academisation of all Hackney secondaries, and head of the Arc Academy mafia, he was headhunted for the past year and finally begged to take the job last August by his friend and chief fan, Michael Gove. His remit is clearly to drive the academisation of both primary and secondary schools nationwide. His fondest belief is that "Satisfactory" in all Ofsted reports prior to his messianic arrival should really mean "Unsatisfactory". Leslie Church may be one of his first victims, alongside the self-belief of all existing Ofsted inspectors. For your own self-belief, continue opposing forced academisation - just don't expect to win.
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Ah yes, Sir Michael Wilshaw of Mossbourne Academy fame. And we mustn't forget Baroness Sally Morgan, appointed Chair of Ofsted in March 2011, who has been adviser to ARK since 2005. You are absolutely right, of course, we are certainly up against the big guns, but let's keep on being 'the Mouse that Roared'.
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Billy, no one is fighting to support continued failure, least of all me or the caring, active parents I know at Downhills. I don't know which parents you are referring to when you say they were not 'overly complimentary' or 'under pressure'?? but my experience of the school since my son started there has been a very positive one and so it would seem to be for very many people I know or have spoken to. I cannot praise my son's teachers enough, they have done a great job with him (and this was a little boy who started school aged only four and was most reluctant to leave mummy and home). KS1 at Downhills has made marked improvements, but yes, KS2 must start to show the same forward push. Those who are campaigning to save our community school are not against improvement and progress but we are against Gove's backdoor approach to what is effectively the privatisation of our community schools. This is just the thin end of the wedge, as this article from the New Statesman discusses. Link posted here:
http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2012/02/school-reforms-gove...
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Thanks for this link Alison.
It's interesting that more people are beginning to realise that Mr Gove isn't simply speeding-up Labour's academies policy. That like the NHS deforms, there's a plan to marketise and privatise the English Education system.
I realise that people may have conflicting views on this. Some will deplore it; others may welcome it enthusiastically. With perhaps another group in the middle who just want to send their kids to a good local school, never mind who runs it or owns it.
But a key issue, surely, is that such a massive change in the education system should be done openly after a proper public debate on the different options. Not piecemeal and by stealth.
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In case you or others hadn't spotted it, at 8pm this evening (16 February) The Report on BBC Radio 4 FM deals with the forced academy issue. I've no idea of what it will cover. (Later, the programme will be available for download as a podcast; or on their website.)
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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Permalink Reply by Zena Brabazon on
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Leslie Church was an inspiring and motivating head, and it is a tragedy that he has left his post. It is easy to criticise a school like Downhills and claim the school and it supporters made excuses for 'failure'. I don't think 61% of children reaching level 4 in English and Maths is failure - not even by Michael Gove's own retrospectively increased target.
Like many Tottenham schools it faces real challenges, not least of which is the churn and turnover of pupils - so many coming and going, largely attributable to the instability which comes with private sector renting, overcrowding, houses in multiple occupation etc - which are just facts of life in the poorer parts of Haringey. Ironically areas with swathes of large council/social housing estates do have more stability and less turnover - people may be poor but they aren't moving around all the time.
Just a few children leaving can mean all the difference in the targets being met or missed. In areas with stable housing and stable communities this isn't an issue - but in Tottenham it is, and inevitably impacts on the results. And don't use Tower Hamlets as a comparator - besides having a much more stable population where children are more likely to go all the way through primary school, they get £1500 per pupil more than Haringey.
Like the New Statesman article says, this is really about the privatisation of our schools - handing them over to private companies, and breaking up the national system. This turns children and schools into commodities with a value which can be bought and sold to the highest bidder. Presumably these companies want to make a profit to pay their high executive salaries and will have to do this from the funding they receive from us - the taxpayers. Makes you weep.
Zena Brabazon
Cllr, St. Ann's Ward
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Permalink Reply by David Barry on
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Billy I am not in a political party. Note this point before I comment that I regard YOU criticising Zena for
"using schooling as a political football and using inflamatory language as above to scare the locals."
As an extraordinary exercise in chutzpah.
There are serious matters to discuss here, and many points to be considered. And sometimes, because of the way our democracy works (worst system save for all the others etc.) an aggressive party political approach is legitimate.
However for someone to do as you have done, use an aggressive party political approach, and then accuse your opponents of being the ones who are political, is frankly, a bit rich.
(And I am not a trot either)
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I was not criticising you for being political. Indeed as I said "sometimes an aggressive party political approach is legitimate" My criticism was that you were being political and then accusing people who responded to you appropriately of being political. Its the accusing other people, as if you were not being political I objected to.
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So far as I am aware academy status does not boost funding as such; schools get the same funding they would have got through the LEA, but as they have no relationship with the LEA and so are not entitled to any support from it, they get an extra grant to pay for the cost of replacing services they would otherwise have had from the LEA. Note that while this does increase the size of the budget the Academy has to spend, it also increases what the Academy has to spend money on.
In the only case I have been able to get full information on, a primary school in Islington, they freely opted to be an Academy for reasons other than money.
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