School fails pupils

9:06am Sunday 6th July 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

A secondary school criticised for failing to meet Government standards last month, has been declared "inadequate" by school inspectors.

The John Loughborough School has been given a written warning to improve its standards by Ofsted inspectors, who visited the school in May.

The damning Ofsted report, released last week, comes just weeks after the school, in Holcombe Road, Tottenham was earmarked as underachieving by Education Secretary Ed Balls, because fewer than 30 per cent of pupils were gaining five or more A to C GCSE grades, including maths and English.

Following the latest inspection by the national inspectors, the school was issued with a warning to improve its standards quickly.

Of the seven core areas evaluated, four received inadequate gradings, while the rest were deemed only satisfactory.

The comprehensive school was rated inadequate for its overall effectiveness as well as for achievements and standards and for the quality of provision.

It was rated as satisfactory for personal development and wellbeing and for leadership and management.

The inspectors said the school "requires significant improvement, because it is performing significantly less well than in all the circumstances it could reasonably be expected to perform".

The inspector added: "Turbulence within the school and the local community has drained capacity for improvement and, until recently, diverted attention from what is important: the needs of young learners."

The school was previously inspected by Ofsted in February 2007 and was asked to improve the quality of teaching, standards and achievement.

In a follow up assessment in October last year, inspectors said the school was making inadequate progress and 2007 GCSE results were deemed to be "disappointing and poor".

Haringey Council took control of the Seventh-day Adventist school in February this year and put in place an interim executive board and temporary headteacher Oveta McInnis to try to tackle some of the problems.

Ms McInnis was praised for her desire to change the school's attitude.

The report stated: "The acting headteacher is a stong leader who is already giving clear direction to the work of the school.

"She knows what needs to be done to improve the school and is putting appropriate strategies in place."

Ms McInnis said: "We are making progress in raising the academic and teaching standards at the school and we are determined that, as a team, progress will continue over the coming weeks and months.

"Our pupils deserve nothing less."

Councillor Liz Santry, cabinet member for children and young people, said: "This report clearly shows the challenges facing the school and vindicates our decision to set up an interim executive board (IEB) and the appointment of a temporary headteacher in February.

"We will continue to give the school, the IEB and the headteacher the help and support they need in their efforts to bring about the improvements which are necessary."