Wye Valley School placed in special measures (From Bucks Free Press)

Wye Valley School placed in special measures

5:11pm Thursday 7th March 2013 in News By Simon Farr

Wye Valley School placed in special measures

STAFF at Wye Valley School are determined to turn the school around after it was placed into special measures.

Government inspectors Ofsted ranked the school in Bourne End “inadequate” in a report published this week.

Buckinghamshire County Council said it was ‘extremely disappointed’ and has applied to the Secretary of State for Education for permission to replace the existing governing body with an Interim Executive Board.

The board is a team made up of experienced governors and officers, who will oversee the school’s development before handing back to a permanent board of governors once the school has recovered.

The inspector said pupils’ standards in English are too low and weak reading skills limit children’s’ ability to understand what is being taught.

Teachers expectations are too low and there is a weakness in marking, with teachers giving too little guidance as to how children can improve.

School leaders “have not done enough” to bring better lessons and governors lack a detailed understanding of the school’s weaknesses and are not in a position to challenge school leaders, the report states.

The inspector did, however, praise pupils behaviour and the progress children with special needs make at the New Road school.

The special measures judgement comes despite the Wye Valley’s best set of GCSE results in its history. It was rated a “good” school in 2007.

In a statement, BCC said: “The headteacher and staff at Wye Valley are determined to continue to improve standards following placement of the school into special measures after an Ofsted inspection in January.

“There have been significant changes to the way schools are inspected and the school had previously identified actions that needed to be taken to ensure progress, but Ofsted said these had not improved standards quickly enough.

“In the report, inspectors have recognised the strengths and improvements that the school has already made in recent months.

“Although the Ofsted result is extremely disappointing, the school and BCC have moved swiftly to put in place measures to act on all the recommendations in the report.

“BCC has reacted swiftly to the Ofsted judgement and moved decisively to reinforce the leadership of the school, by applying to the Secretary of State for Education for permission to replace the existing governing body with an Interim Executive Board (IEB).

“The IEB is a small, highly experienced group of governors, officers and school leaders who can increase the pace of change at the school.

“The IEB will oversee the next stage in the development and improvement of Wye Valley School and, eventually, the transition back to a permanent governing body when the school’s recovery is established.

“The staff are committed to working with Ofsted, BCC and the IEB, who will bring the skills and experience needed to speed up improvements and move the school quickly out of special measures. This is a positive step towards the future success of Wye Valley School.”