Wakeman School Ofsted report ‘is ignored’

Friday 6th May 2011, 11:29AM BST.

Bosses at Shrewsbury’s Wakeman School today claimed their latest Ofsted report had been ignored by council chiefs in a bid to press ahead with the school’s closure.

The report released last week deems the school to have “improved rapidly” with “outstanding” features. Its overall effectiveness and capacity for sustained improvement were rated as “good”.

The findings were announced just days before Shropshire Council chiefs backed a proposal to close the school at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, as part of a countywide shake-up of the education system.

The council today said it recognised the “educational contribution” of the Wakeman and said the Ofsted report was published on the same day as the cabinet report and could not be included in cabinet papers until it was published as it was “confidential”.

Wakeman head teacher Karen Moore, who was commended for her “outstanding leadership” by inspectors who visited the school on March 30 and 31, said the report was a ringing endorsement of the school.

She said: “The report was available for members of the cabinet to view before Wednesday’s meeting but they claim they could not get access to it. The situation is ridiculous because it was a very good report.”

View more: Shrewsbury news, Wakeman School news.

1
Port Hill Boy

May 6, 2011 at 14:25

The Ofsted report is irrelevant (anyway it’s an ok one nothing more, certainly not overall “outstanding” which is what schools aspire to).

The decision to close Wakeman was made on a range of criteria, they have been debated by full Council, and members of all political parties have said that it should close.

Wakeman – move on.

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- Eric S
  
  May 6, 2011 at 15:07
  
  Exactly. The numbers applying to be educated at the Wakeman school are too low to make the school sustainable and there is a need to reduce the total secondary school capacity in the region to ensure the education budget is not funding half-full classrooms and unused buildings.
  
  Report abuse
- Adam
  
  May 6, 2011 at 15:39
  
  1. It’s not irrelevant. The standard of education is one of the criteria the council need to consider. The Wakeman’s recent Ofsted is ‘Good’ and it’s a school on the way up, unlike, for example, Belvidere’s recent ‘Good’ report which sees them dropping down from ‘Outstanding’.
  
  2. It wasn’t debated by full Council, it was decided by the Cabinet.
  
  3. Members of all political parties have not said that it should close, certainly not within the council.
  
  Wakeman… move on to the next stage of the consultation.
  
  Report abuse
  - Eric S
    
    May 6, 2011 at 16:07
    
    Quotes from the tweet stream yesterday:
    
    “no change is not an option”
    
    “The Wakeman is subsidised to a ‘significant degree’, placing a drain on the education system, says Councillor Mike Owen.”
    
    “Proposal to close Wakeman unanimous!”
    
    The education standard of the school was never called into question – the economic effect of keeping it open with very low pupil numbers were. Something has to be done to reduce spare capacity that is causing a funding crisis – if Wakeman is not to close what are the alternatives – there is no point just shouting “Keep Wakeman Open” without also stating how the funding shortfall can be otherwise addressed.
    
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  - OutOfSchool
    
    May 6, 2011 at 18:21
    
    1 Actually, the Decision Makers don’t have to consider the standards at the closing school. They have to consider whether the proposals will improve standards overall. I think and additional £1.7m for other schools has a fair chance of doing that. What about you?
    2 The Council’s constitution, which was agreed by full Council, says the decision should be made by Cabinet. Read it yourself. I did, it’s on the Council website. The DfE Guidance on who should make the decisions doesn’t specify who should make the decision, but it gives two examples, the Council’s Cabinet, and a Cabinet sub-committee. It seems there’s no expectation that full Council should be involved.
    3 Andrew Bannerman said there was one school too many in Shrewsbury, but I don’t think he was advocating the closure of Wakeman. However, the criteria, including size and surplus places were developed by a cross party working group and the Labour Party voted for them in Council. (The Lib Dems couldn’t make up their mind.)
    
    Report abuse
    - john barnabus
      
      May 7, 2011 at 11:30
      
      Who are you “Out of School” – should that be “Out of Shropshire Council’s Education Department” – you are saying the same things as Shropshire Council, the same inaccurate things.
      
      If you looked at the facts objectively, you would not be writing this stuff.
      
      And, as an aside, how do you push up school standards across an area by closing schools that Ofsted considers better than some of the others that are being saved? I can’t work that one out.
      
      Report abuse
- ANDREW FINCH
  
  May 7, 2011 at 09:43
  
  Are not most state education ofsted school reports just OK.How many in Shrewsbury or Shropshire are outstanding?
  
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  - Mat
    
    May 9, 2011 at 15:19
    
    One of the criteria for closing schools in Shropshire was if the school had a Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory Ofsted report. Wakemans was 4 years old and this caused the school to be counted, now it has a ‘Good with outstanding features’ this must have some effect on the judgement.
    
    There are several schools in county with lower level reports and there is definetely another secondary school in Shrewsbury deemed as satifactory only recently, so perhaps just including one secondary school in this closure consultation was a little unfair.
    
    Report abuse
2
atcham jack

May 6, 2011 at 14:43

something smells here is it the council or the developers who want this wakeman building developed. it is time for the dept. of the environment and also the education ministry to investigate the council and developers

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- Eric S
  
  May 6, 2011 at 15:08
  
  That smell is the conspiracy theory you are restating!
  
  Report abuse
3
SQUIRREL

May 6, 2011 at 19:14

My concern is that my daughter, in year ten at The Wakeman and others taking their GCSE’s will not get a good education at this critical time in their schooling.
Teachers will be looking for other posts, the school will be emptying and morale will surely be low.
My son also went to The Wakeman, they supported him tremendously with his dyslexia and he is now at university. As the Ofsted report is now good, surely in future more students would be applying to The Wakeman,

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4
Elizabeth

May 7, 2011 at 10:28

I am an ex- pupil of Wakeman School and now a Teacher. I think the proposals to close the school are disgusting. Made by Councillor bigwigs who know nothing about serving the local community and who are out of touch with education and learning.

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- Port Hill Boy
  
  May 8, 2011 at 14:53
  
  The same “council bigwigs..and who are out of touch with education” who have put millions into Wakeman in the past and who you never criticised.
  
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5
1966 and all

May 7, 2011 at 15:29

Andrew – one secondary in Shrewsbury, The Priory.

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- ANDREW FINCH
  
  May 9, 2011 at 09:19
  
  Yes ONE in shrewsbury, unfortunately many especially some who work in this field are happy to just scrape through with OK.As with any service just OK is not good enough in the long term.
  
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  - Port Hill Boy
    
    May 9, 2011 at 10:47
    
    There is no such Ofsted grading as OK.
    The gradings are:
    Inadequate
    Satisfactory
    Good
    Outstanding
    
    Wakeman is “good”. Laudable but not a reason for keeping it open in the face of lack of money, falling school numbers etc.
    
    Report abuse
    - ANDREW FINCH
      
      May 9, 2011 at 15:34
      
      I think most people are aware there is no ofsted grading of ok, but most agree (satisfactory) is regarded by most as another word for OK.
      
      Report abuse
6
Keith

May 10, 2011 at 09:32

Strange how only a few years ago Ofsted were being criticised left, right and centre for their reports by the schools.
Now it seems the way forward to prove your worth.

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7
HF

May 10, 2011 at 14:21

Far better to close the Priory, as pupils and staff could easily be moved to Meole Brace and or the Wakeman (which are better thought of schools).

Also, the site currently occupied by the Priory is absolutely ripe for redevelopment.

There’s still a market for family and prestige houses, and redevelopment of this particular site would be fantastic for the town, as well as providing an income stream to the local authority.

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- Eric S
  
  May 11, 2011 at 09:19
  
  Thanks for making me laugh this morning :o)
  
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- 1966 and all
  
  May 11, 2011 at 22:06
  
  Hmm… so close a school that’s full rather than one that’s more than half empty? Close a school that’s graded as “outstanding” (the only one in Shrewsbury) and not the one that got “good”?
  
  OK, that makes sense. Good idea.
  
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