Ofsted Report

As you will know Oulder Hill Community School and Language College was recently inspected by Ofsted.
The full report is available to download here. Below is the letter sent out to all parents and carers.

Headteacher's Letter

Our ref: MD/cef

4th November, 2009

Dear Parent or Carer,

As you know our school was inspected two weeks ago under the rigorous new OFSTED framework which became
operational on 1st September, 2009. Thank you to all who completed the questionnaires for the inspection team.

In 2008, The Chief HMI, Christine Gilbert felt that the old OFSTED framework was no longer appropriate to use for
grading schools. She implied that too many schools were being graded good or outstanding and that she intended to
introduce tougher inspections and ”raise the bar.” She stated: “My impression is that it will be harder for a school to be
rated as good or outstanding.” Consequently, under the new framework, schools which were graded as outstanding in
the past are likely to be graded as good and schools that were graded good are likely to be graded as satisfactory.

During our inspection, the OFSTED team had to work to very strict guidelines and were only able to make judgements
about the school’s validated examination results over three years – in 2006, 2007 and 2008, a disappointment, given
our very good examination results in 2009.

However, we are very pleased with the report overall. It will be published on the OFSTED website from next week.
(You will be able to read it before publication on the school’s website later this week. For parents who do not
have internet access a paper copy will be available from the school on Friday of this week).

All our hard work since our last inspection three years ago is reflected in the significant number of good grades and
positive comments, a selection of which is shown below:

   • Oulder Hill Community School and Language College is a happy and improving school

   • Since the previous inspection, there have been improvements in key areas, especially in the increased proportion
   of teaching judged to be good or better

   • The school has a very positive and supportive ethos. The staff share a strong commitment to the school
   and are overwhelmingly proud to belong to it

   • The school has good capacity to secure and sustain further improvements
.
   • Senior leaders and governors share a strong sense of purpose and an accurate knowledge of the strengths of the school

   • Teaching and learning have improved steadily since the last inspection and are now predominantly good

   • Students’ behaviour is good

   • The school has had particular success in raising achievement in English and Mathematics since the last inspection

   • Most students enjoy school and feel that they learn well. In particular they feel extremely safe in and around school
   and know how to lead healthy lives

   • The school’s tangible ethos of mutual respect promotes equal opportunities and tackles discrimination very effectively

   • Students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good. The school is a diverse and harmonious community
   in which students work together very well

   • Almost all students move on to employment, further education or training on leaving the school

   • The curriculum is of good quality

   • Care, guidance and support are a very strong aspect of the school’s work

   • The impact of leadership and management is good

   • The school’s developing partnership with the special school located on the same campus contributes
   much to community cohesion

   • Governors understand and carry out their statutory responsibilities well.

   • The high quality of care, guidance, support and safeguarding provided by the school ensures that more
   vulnerable groups progress at least as well as their peers

We are delighted that inspectors said we knew our school well. Indeed, they identified only two issues to work on
(see below) and acknowledged that we had already made progress on these.

Raise attainment by:

   • securely embedding good practice in assessment, marking and feedback to students, so that all know
   precisely how to improve their work in all subjects

   • focusing the monitoring and evaluation of teaching and learning on the development of a wider range of
   teaching and learning strategies to ensure the highest outcomes for the more able students.

Clearly we are pleased with the report overall but our work is ongoing. I would like to thank you, once again,
for your support in our partnership to ensure the best education for your child(ren) and look forward to working
with you in the future.

Yours sincerely,
Mrs. M. Dudley
Headteacher