A primary school in north Bristol has been placed into special measures after Ofsted found that the school does not give an acceptable level of education to its pupils. Cotham Gardens Primary School, on Cotham Grove in Redland, was judged to be ‘Inadequate’ in two key judgements despite previously being rated as ‘Good’.
His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Liz Geller, visited the school, formerly known as Colston’s Primary, in December alongside two other inspectors, and subsequently placed the school into special measures. The quality of education was cited as one reason for this and the leadership and management team the second reason.
The primary school, with 482 pupils, is run as a single academy trust and its CEO, Chris Seaton, said that the quality of education had been “severely compromised over a period of years”. He added that “rapid change” was taking place to improve the school.
The report strongly criticised the school, which said: “The school, including the trust [the school operates as a single academy 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.”
Whilst pupils feel happy and safe around the school and their conduct “sensible and purposeful” around the school, the school’s expectations of behaviour for learning are not high enough. Pupils experience disruptions to learning and staff do not apply the behaviour policy consistently well.
Some opportunities for pupils to take on leadership responsibilities are available. However, these are limited.
“Lack of oversight about pupils’ education”
The report said: “The curriculum is designed to identify what pupils will learn from the reception through to year six. However, checks are not made in the way in which the curriculum is taught. There is a lack of oversight about pupils’ education.
“The recently strengthened trust board has begun to address this issue. The board is ensuring that the school is supported to monitor and check the implementation of the curriculum accurately. However, as yet, the school does not know which areas of the curriculum are being delivered successfully or those aspects that require strengthening.
“Pupils’ gaps in learning are not routinely addressed. Their learning often consists of a series of disconnected lessons. This does not help them to build securely on their previous knowledge or prepare them for what they will learn next, as a result, pupils do not progress well through the curriculum and their achievement is weak.”
Pupils with SEND are not supported to learn all that they should and those with SEND do not achieve well enough. Steps have been taken to prioritise reading within the curriculum, but there is not a sharp focus on ensuring a wide vocabulary is taught. Inspectors found that children read books that match the sounds they know during reception, but that the curriculum is underdeveloped in some areas in the early years, and those in key stage one are not able to read fluently.
Changes to trust board in “early stages of bringing stability”
Ofsted said that those responsible for the governance at the school “do not have the capacity to improve the quality of education” and not enough has been done to ensure that the curriculum is delivered consistently well. The trust board has had recent changes, including appointing a new head of school, Emmeline Smith, which is in the “early stages of beginning stability”.
The impact is that the foundations are beginning to be made to build the school back up and implement improvements. The school is heavily reliant on external support in the meantime.
The report said: “There is a rigorous approach to securing pupils’ attendance at school. Staff work closely with families and external agencies to gain an understanding of the causes of any absence. This work has had a demonstrable impact.
“However, staff do not apply this policy consistently well. In some lessons, the poor behaviour of some pupils sometimes interrupts the learning of others.
“The school’s provision for pupils’ broader personal development lacks coherence. Although the curriculum is well designed, staff do not deliver it as they should and lessons are not ordered well enough to build pupils’ knowledge securely over time. This means that pupils are not as well prepared for life in modern Britain as they should be.”
His Majesty’s Chief Inspector “strongly recommends” that the school does not seek to appoint early career teachers at this time.
In response to the Ofsted report, the CEO of the trust, Chris Seaton, said: “”Cotham Gardens remains a safe and happy place to work and study, but the quality of education has been severely compromised over a period of years. Since taking up the role, and since the trustees’ appointment of Ms. Smith as Head of School last summer, I have seen a great deal of hard work in leadership, governance and across the staff team to implement rapid change to improve the standard and quality of education.”