Town school “inadequate”
Tuesday 15th December 2009, 1:52PM GMT.
A Telford school has been given the lowest possible mark by government inspectors in a damning report in which it was branded “inadequate”.
The level of teaching and the behaviour of pupils at Sutherland Business and Enterprise College were both criticised in the report. Ofsted inspectors have now served the school in Gibbs Road, Trench, with a “notice to improve” following October’s visit.
Officials will inspect the school again in six months and carry out another full inspection next year.
The school has been warned it could be placed into special measures if improvements are not made.
However, the school today insisted measures were now in place to take it forward, including mentoring staff on a weekly basis.
Headteacher Steve Wall said a range of teaching and learning initiatives had already been brought in and GCSE results for this year were above the national average.
“We are mentoring staff on a weekly basis in order that teaching and learning continues to improve and we feel confident that within 12 months we will be leaving ‘notice to improve’ behind’,” he said.
Officials inspected 25 lessons during the two-day visit and held meetings with governors, staff and groups of students before coming up with the final rating.
Ofsted inspector Kevin Sheldrick said “significant improvement” was needed in relation to pupils’ achievement and behaviour. He said teaching and learning at the school was inadequate and blamed “weaknesses in teaching” for low achievement and inadequate behaviour among pupils.
The report said behaviour was not consistently well-managed by teachers and unacceptable behaviour from students was “too often” ignored.
In a letter to parents and staff, Mr Sheldrick says: “Despite there still being some weaknesses in the college, inspectors agree with the Year 11 students interviewed that it has improved in recent years and that it has some good features.
“Nevertheless, the college is being given a notice to improve because behaviour and achievement are not good enough overall.”
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Gibbons Road not Gibbs Road!
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And I am sure the NUT will defend the teaching staff to the bitter end.Sack the under performing staff not pay them off etc etc and expell the pupils who are at fault.
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Will the Headteacher, the chair of Govenors and the Cabinet member for educationa at telford and wrekin council have principles and quit?
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You cannot just expell pupils who are showing negative behaviours, this does not solve the problem of student behaviour at all,the students will just move on to other schools and continue to behave in the same way. Surely instead of ignoring the problem and sending these students away from one school, you could fix the problem one and for all by keeping them at whatever school they are at and offering them support and perhaps the attention they want (prehaps because they are struggling and it is the only way they feel they can express themselves- with the attitude of ‘i’ll never understand, so why bother to try?’) so they can achieve. This doesn’t mean neglecting the well behaved students either. Everyone should be offered support.
Surely no one really minds if a school had a few ‘bad’ students if it is trying it’s hardest to improve and help them?
All i’m trying to say is that ignoring and brushing off the problem onto someone else will not solve it.
Unemployment rates are high enough without pushing students out of schools without any qualifications for what simply is ‘bad’ behaviour. What future will they have if no one will give them a chance now?
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Saying what I did say, the so called disruptive people at my old school most went on to do rather well with own business’es etc. So perhaps some peoples views that the children are not being stimulated enough by the teachers so are spending the day bored to tears may be true . So I withdraw my first view expell only the violent pupils,
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The school stepped up patrols on smoking after the OFSTED inspection, yet the report does not mention smoking as an issue.
The headteacher should’ve spent more time monitoring the staff than the pupils. Unfortunately, unions and employment law give failing teachers and failing schools greater protection than pupils receive.
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Unfortunately, the school was one of the schools identified by a local MP as failing to tackle bullies appropriately. Then the school exclude pupils for smoking, when until this OFSTED report came out, teachers were smoking in the bike sheds with them. Double standards.
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As a pupil which attends the sutherland school, I would like to say what i feel about the school. I am now in the later years of the school and remember when i first started the behavior of the pupils were just as bad as some of the teachers .Pupils would run up and down the corriders not in leasson etc.Now nearly every child is in leassons and working .The school has improved loads and deserves the credit.The new head master has turned the school around and as i pupil my self i think yeah there is room for improvement still.
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