Christ the King College has been slapped with another ‘Requires Improvement’ rating from Ofsted, but the school is challenging that decision. Following a visit by inspectors in November last year, the Newport-based school has been graded as ‘Good’ in all areas except for the quality of education, which is deemed to be sub-standard. This gives an overall effectiveness of ‘Requires Improvement’ – the same rating awarded following the last inspection in September 2021. It has taken several months for Ofsted’s final report to be published as Christ the King College lodged a formal complaint with His Majesty’s Inspectorate, fundamentally disagreeing with the overall outcome. Despite the school’s challenge, Ofsted has not upheld any of the complaints and has proceeded with publishing its report this week. The school – which has 1,077 children on roll – says it remains unconvinced that due diligence and fairness have been applied in the process and is continuing to challenge the report process and the judgement given. According to the official report, Ofsted inspectors found that teachers do not always deliver the curriculum consistently well, which limits pupils’ learning in some subjects. Sometimes, teachers do not check how much pupils have understood or what pupils need to learn next, which means they are not achieving as well as they should. In respect of the Sixth Form, which has 212 students enrolled, it’s said that in too many subject areas pupils are not fully prepared to future study. Inspectors also found that although the ambition of leaders at all levels is clear, it is not translating into practice as consistently as it should which means the school’s educational provision is not yet being delivered as intended. The attendance of some pupils has also been raised as an area of concern. On the flip side, it was found that pupils behave well and are happy at Christ the King, benefitting from effective and caring pastoral support. Thanks to time devoted to personal, social and health education, pupils are well-equipped for life in modern Britain. Headteacher Andrew Montrose has said:
“We have had some challenges over a number of years, but our improvement journey has been well-documented and we really do have a passionate, loyal and hard-working community of people who strive hard every day to give our students the very best education and opportunities. “Notwithstanding this, our staff and Governors are also mindful that there are areas we do need to focus on to ensure we refine and improve. With this in mind, we do have a robust quality assurance system and Development Plans which are monitored and reviewed regularly.
Addressing the ‘Requires Improvement’ rating for the quality of education specifically, Mr Montrose has said:
“There are some specific things we need to work on moving forward; these were already part of our Development Plan, and will continue to be priorities for us as we work with key partners and the Local Authority. “We are continually striving for consistency and excellence in terms of what we do in the classroom, and have already put in place several key whole-school expectations for all lessons to facilitate consistency and academic progress”.
Funny that. An OFSTED rating goes against them so they disagree with it.
So you challenge the decision and yet agree with some of it too, how does that work then? A lot of business speak in the schools statement of course. Handle the decision and stop crying about it, like most other schools do.
And this is why Ofsted needs to be removed. Tick boxes do not make well-adjusted, informed kids with test passes, teaching does that. Let the teachers teach.
As the saying goes,
You don’t fatten a pig by weighing it regularly.
Assessment is essential to ensure that required standards are met. Ofsted exists to ensure that children get educated to specified standards. Before Ofsted, schools were inspected in an ad hoc manner and failing schools were not identified sufficiently quickly. Without some form of assessment, schools will fail and children will not be properly educated. Clearly, many schools will “require improvement” to reach “good ” and “outstanding grades. In other occupations, it is usual to have performance reviews to drive improvement but you seem to think that schools/teachers should be exempt, which is wrong. I’ve encountered many bad teachers in my life as both a pupil and parent, and I am glad that a system exists to improve schools.
I think OFSTED should have more power and influence over the schools management and Governors, especially at CtK ..perhaps criminal proceedings ? Partly based upon the 6th form shambles .and many others . it’s only the students that suffer.. and that must be addressed as the highest priority .. not some meaningless development plan .. I have never rated CtK .. and speak from experience of this school which never seems to change for the better .. same regurgitated problems from 8 yrs ago .. good luck students & parents of students .. the mighty CtK’s halo has slipped again ..
And you are confident that this system achieves this aim? Former teachers promoted to inspectors telling, but never demonstrating, the ever increasing bar of what is considered ‘good’ to OFSTED, an organisation which is merely jobs for the boys. I know of an island school led by a headteacher who was also an OFSTED inspector, which was found to be failing when expected to be thriving. The whole thing is a pathetic game. Teaching is a demoralising job. There are few positives because the whole slant from the public and the government is negative. This accounts for the mass exodus of teachers happening currently in this country, most of whom worked tirelessly for the good of the children, but it is never enough.A sad situation.
Well every teacher and pupil thinks you’re wrong. You can’t educate kids to a specified standard; they are all different. What it does is label them, and the teaching staff as inadequate and morale drops like a stone in both camps. Private schools don’t have it and kids there thrive. Teachers in private schools teach according to the child, not the test which requires an element of ‘thou shalt learn x by y’ with no room for catch up if they didn’t quite get it the first time. That’s how kids get left behind and demoralised and teachers crawl out at the end of term terrified of having to go back. And most of them love teaching. Or did.
Private schools thrive because they have a MUCH higher ratio of teachers to students so they can cater for individual needs, but at £2K-£3K per term I would expect nothing less.
Private schools are totally results driven and they have the resources to help kids from wealthy families excel. Teachers who get bad results are soon shown the door.
the Newport-based school has been graded as ‘Good’ in all areas except for the quality of education, which is deemed to be sub-standard. – education is their primary purpose!
it was found that pupils behave well and are happy at Christ the King, benefitting from effective and caring pastoral support.
what the above two sentences indicate are that the teachers are spending too much time, molly coddling and pandering to the kids, rather than focusing on the primary reason they are at school – to get an education.
Unhappy kids behave badly, and then cannot learn. Happy kids love to learn, which is then borne out by results. Pastoral care is the first step in that process. As the results speak for themselves it indicates that the education is not substandard…except if the parameters of measurement are narrow and arbitrary. A one-size policy does not fit all; teaching is flexible, or at least should be. If it’s not, we’re churning out robots, not human beings.
Hardly, the main determinants of a child’s happiness are related to their home life. Good parental care is the first step in the process of guiding a child to educational attainment.
well said gary – a kid that goes to school happy, is not guaranteed to be a model student, but the probability is far higher that they will do better in the school environment than a child that has a crappy homelife, with miserable, lazy and abusive parents
Not necessarily, no. Plenty of kids with ishy home environment can thrive quite nicely in other areas when their needs are met. If they’re not though, what do you suppose happens to them growing into adults? Lack of self esteem can kill potential quicker than smack, but it makes a good alternative in the absence of anything else.
Schools have and always will be churning out robots to fit in with societies needs, anyone who doesn’t go along with the government and schools thinking is labeled “autistic” or “disruptive”, people are individual, and schools “condition” kids to conform.
Unfortunately teaching is ‘one-size fits all’, they cannot teach individuals in a way that works for them as teachers have a class of 30+. This means some kids will thrive because it works for them, and others will struggle because they don’t learn in the same way.
Ofsted need dumping , if a different group of Inspectors under take without knowledge of previous it would be very different. It’s one of those things in that inspectors either like the head and staff or not. Like taking car for MOT will pass in some garages and fail in others,some love McDonald’s and others hate it, like football hate it and everything around it or obsessed with.
You are writing drivel Freddie because Ofsted inspections are performed according to specified criteria that aim to eliminate subjectivity. Inspectors also have to read previous reports to find evidence of improvement or decline in performance.
You would think so, but it is anything but objective. It is very much subjective in reality.
If the education part of CTK’s offering is substandard then the rest of it’s provision whether good, very good or outstanding doesn’t really matter does it? It’s a school. If the education is inadequate then it’s failed surely?
If a restaurant with beautiful furniture, smiley happy staff and excellently printed menus was serving indigestible, unhygienic food would it still qualify as a top eatery because 4 out of 5 of the requirements were met?
Suck it up CTK.
Learn ’em and learn ’em good!
Looking at their GCSE results, I’d say inadequate.