Parents have hit out at Ofsted following a primary school being placed into special measures in north Bristol. Cotham Gardens Primary School, on Cotham Grove in Redland, was judged to be ‘Inadequate’ in two key judgements when it was inspected in December.
The quality of education and leadership and management at the school was rated as ‘Inadequate’, resulting in the primary school, formerly known as Colston’s Primary, being placed into special measures. The other key judgements were rated as ‘Requires Improvement’ and the school was strongly criticised within the Ofsted report.
The CEO of the primary school, Chris Seaton, said that the quality of education “has been severely compromised over a period of years”. He added that there has been hard work to “implement rapid change” since the summer.
However, parents at the school have hit out at the report for being “far too overwhelmingly negative”. In a letter sent to the head of school and the board of the school, which has been seen by Bristol Live, the parents said that the report “does not reflect our or our children’s positive experiences” of the school.
Signed by 126 parents, the letter said: “The Ofsted report does not reflect our or our children’s positive experiences of Cotham Gardens Primary School, which has for many [pupils] delivered a love of learning, a wealth of experiences and a valuable focus on being a good citizen.
“While we recognise that Ofsted need to address certain points and conform to a predefined format in their report, and also take on board your own acceptance of the areas for improvement and necessary actions required, we feel the report is far too overwhelmingly negative in tone.
“There is little reflection of the positive results shared via Parent View during the inspection nor many of our personal experiences. Further, in many places it does not build upon or reflect the positives from the previous inspection report in January 2023, all of which have often made an important contribution to our own experiences of the school.
“We therefore feel that the report fails to provide a balanced insight into the school. It also fails to recognise the validity of parents as key stakeholders, who have a range of experiences, and who have made the decision to send their children to the School. For some people, this has led to a feeling that the report is undermining their own judgements, decisions and feelings through its tone and the statements made, and has caused upset through its lack of recognition for the positive experiences and views of many parents.
“We would also like to take this opportunity to recognise the hard work of the teachers, teacher assistants, learning support assistants and all support staff, inside and outside the classroom, and to express our gratitude for and to them.”
What did the report say?
The report said: “The school, including the trust, lacks the capacity to bring about the necessary changes to pupils’ learning at the required pace. A lack of oversight has led to a decline in the quality of education that pupils receive.
“Pupils do not receive an acceptable standard of education at Cotham Gardens and the school’s expectations of pupils’ achievement are low. The impact of the school’s curriculum is weak. Consequently, pupils are unprepared for the next stage of their education.
“The support that pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive to learn the curriculum is poor. The school has not done enough to identify and address these weaknesses over time. This has been compounded further by turbulence in leadership and governance.”
The curriculum, which is designed to identify what pupils will learn throughout the school, is affected by checks of pupils’ knowledge not being made in the right way. Ofsted did note that the “recently strengthened trust board” has begun to address this, but that the school does not yet know which areas of the curriculum are being delivered successfully.
Ofsted did credit the trust for its changes, including appointing Emmeline Smith as the new head of school, which is in the “early stages of bringing stability”. The foundations for bringing improvement to the school is being set but in the meantime, the school is reliant on external support.