'Needs improvement' school headed in 'right direction' says headteacher

An Oldham secondary school headteacher has said he has “absolute confidence his school is headed in the right direction” despite a ‘Requires Improvement’ rating from Ofsted inspectors.

Inspectors have re-graded Saddleworth School in Diggle from ‘Good’ at its last inspection in 2018 to ‘Requires Improvement’ following a visit this January.

But Mike Anderson, who became the school’s headteacher in 2020, said that while the new rating was “disappointing for everyone”, the school’s own internal evaluation had highlighted the same areas for improvement and strengths as inspectors had and that the school’s improvement strategy reflected this.

“We have been urgently working to significantly improve our school since 2020,” he said. “Despite the school maintaining its 'Good' rating during its monitoring visit in 2018, we were concerned about the decline in standards and student outcomes. We have absolute confidence that we are now headed in the right direction to give all our students the excellent education they deserve.”

In their report, Ofsted inspectors acknowledge that the school is “increasingly ambitious” for all pupils, has an “aspirational curriculum that is carefully organised and clearly identifies the key building blocks of learning” and that “teachers demonstrate strong subject knowledge”. They said this is helping pupils, particularly those in Years 7 to 9, to learn “increasingly well”.

However, the inspectors said “some of the renewed subject curriculums are in the early stages of implementation”.

“In these subjects, the school has not fully addressed the knowledge gaps that pupils have because of weaknesses in the previous curriculums,” the report found.

Since 2020, Saddleworth School has rewritten every curriculum for pupils in Years 7 to 9 and changed its curriculum offer to be broader, more ambitious and to prioritise English literature and English language, maths, the sciences, history and geography and a modern foreign language.

In 2020, just 12 per cent of Year 11 pupils took all these subjects at GCSE, whereas now almost 40 per cent do.

The Ofsted report found that while the vast majority of pupils are well-behaved and the school is quick to deal with incidents of bullying, some pupils told inspectors that they feel some instances of derogatory language and homophobic comments are not identified by the school consistently well.

Anderson said derogatory language and intolerance of others were “never acceptable”. “We take this extremely seriously,” he said. “We have put in place a new personal development programme for pupils, which promotes tolerance, celebrates diversity and explains modern British values.”

He said the school had also set up a new reporting system for pupils to anonymously report bullying, trained staff on how to deal with derogatory language and appointed anti-bullying ambassadors.

The school is also working towards the White Ribbon Award, which educates boys about the harmful effects of sexism and violence towards girls and women, and the Leeds Beckett Anti-Racist Award.

The inspectors found that while the school had prioritised reading, for example by assessing the reading knowledge of all students in Years 7, 8 and 9 and implementing an effective reading support programme, the school has further progress to make for those in Years 10 and 11.

Anderson said the school was “working hard in this area to ensure that all students become confident and competent readers” and that it now has an established team of staff who are trained in specific reading intervention programmes to support pupils in all years. 

Ofsted also pointed to the fact that pupils’ attendance at school has improved, despite many schools across the country experiencing the opposite. There are still a few who miss lessons despite being in school, but inspectors acknowledged that school staff provide “appropriate pastoral support for these pupils”. Anderson said the school was “doubling efforts to give these pupils extensive support and to set expectations with them so that we improve their attendance”.

Despite the Requires Improvement grade, Ofsted praised many aspects of the school, including:

• Its wide range of extracurricular activities. Inspectors were impressed at how older pupils enjoy taking on positions of responsibility, such as running clubs for younger members of the school
• Its high-quality careers education
• Its support for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.

Anderson said: “As a school, while we have a considerable amount of work to do, we are on the right path. The senior leadership team and all our staff are committed to providing the very best education for our pupils and I am grateful to them for the huge improvements we have already made – and will continue to make – to ensure our school becomes the excellent environment for learning that our children deserve.”