News
Southgate School Ofsted Report November 2019
Posted on: November 18th 2019Dear Parent/Carer,
Thank you for taking the time to read our Ofsted report in which we were judged to be Good. I want to say a heartfelt thanks to our wonderful students and all those parents who have supported us over the years and continue to do so. The Ofsted surveys were overwhelmingly positive about our school. 93% of the 617 students who replied said that they enjoy school and 92% of parents said that their child does well at this school. Whilst there is always room for improvement and we are not complacent, these survey returns made for very encouraging reading. Indeed, they moved the Lead Inspector to say that she hadn’t seen such a high response rate to an Ofsted survey and that the feedback was ‘remarkably strong.’
It was most pleasing to have Ofsted also tell us, in their verbal feedback that:
‘Leadership is highly effective’ and there are ‘…huge strengths, particularly among SLT.’
The schools ‘..care and attention for students, especially of vulnerable students, is excellent.’
‘There are real strengths and opportunities for students and their personal development.’
Our Dedicated Safeguarding Lead is ‘highly vigilant and very effective’
‘The vision and values of the school are very strong and people are committed to doing their best for the students.’
‘Trustees and Governors have a thorough understanding of the school.’
‘There are high expectations and challenge in the 6th Form.’
‘Students are very positive about their school.’
This report and the criteria against which it measures schools is very different to the last time that this school was inspected, in 2009. As Amanda Spielman, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector explained recently, ‘(These changes will) move Ofsted’s focus away from headline data to look instead at how schools are achieving these results, and whether they are offering a curriculum that is broad, rich and deep, or simply teaching to the test.’
Indeed, at the time of our inspection, we were told that only one other London School had been assessed under this new framework, so we did feel a bit like guinea pigs.
Enfield Schools recently received a letter from Mr Peter Nathan, Director of Education for Enfield, in which he wrote (and I quote); ‘I attended a meeting recently with Mike Sheridan HMI (Regional Director for London) who emphasised again that the outstanding judgement is for about 1% of schools and is for exceptional schools that hit all the requirements of the evaluation schedule. A considerable number of schools across the country previously judged as outstanding have moved to good (or below) in recent inspections.’
So, the criteria is different and the bar for Outstanding has been raised. The Lead Inspector praised our ‘remarkable progress’ against the new framework in the short time we have had to respond to it and indeed there is so much for all stakeholders in our school to be proud of.
Irrespective of Ofsted however, we are always striving to improve what we do at this school and that work continues unabated.
Please follow the below link to access our report.
Yours sincerely,
Mr. Martin Lavelle
Headteacher
