Ofsted
Our most recent Ofsted inspection, June 2019 can be found here Ofsted Report 2019
Message from the Headteacher
Dear Grange Community
You will be receiving the Ofsted report with this letter.
I urge you to read the report carefully and conduct a simple exercise.
Please take 2 highlighter pens (different colours).
With one pen, please highlight all the positive text and with the other colour pen, please highlight the negatives.
This will help you to dig deeper into the report and see the positive feedback beyond the disappointment that we all feel when we hear that our School has been judged as ‘ requires improvement to be good’.
The report focuses on the past 4 years and given the Grange SATs results from last year, the inspectors felt that the school could not yet call itself a good school.
Interestingly within the report, the Grange pupils are quoted as saying that Grange “…is a ‘good school’.”
This comes through in the Personal Development, Behaviour and Welfare section of the report in which our School was judged as Good.
I am extremely proud about that and grateful to all the Staff for implementing our shared vision of the strength of a curriculum focus upon Character Development.
This includes all the enriching experiences and opportunities within our curriculum which we have added to the curriculum this year: Diwali Week, Harvest Festival, Eid day, Christchurch Solidarity and Sri Lanka Solidarity experiences amongst many and also the visits to our school of Wild Animals (Meerkats) and a farm and the ‘Dream Tree and Peace Tree ceremonies. Further exciting news is that next year we will introduce a Year 6 Residential Weekend which will be the first Residential trip at Grange.
The report gives us the feedback we need to hear and there are no surprises within it: We need to ensure that there is consistently good learning throughout the school, in every classroom. We need to especially demonstrate this in the subject of Mathematics and particularly show that we are teaching well so that children are learning well and can use their mathematical knowledge to problem solve and calculate.
The report highlights that the work that we have begun this year needs to continue with the focus being upon one core element: IMPACT
We have to be sure that all our hard work feeds through to the end goal of Grange: The children need to always be making clear progress so that when they finish Year 6 at Grange, they leave ready for the challenges of Secondary School.
This needs to be demonstrated through our Year 6 SATs results without ever compromising our focus on what makes our school so special.
What makes our school so special is its core belief that diversity is a strength and that with the value of respect, we can be better than if we were all the same.
Our school truly shines as a beacon of the best of diversity and that came through in the report.
There are is so much important learning to be done at all levels.
We need to find a way to include ‘Parent voice’ even more at Grange, we need to include pupil voice and most importantly we need to ensure that every teacher and educator has the highest expectations for the outcomes (IMPACT) of every child because they have the highest aspirations for each child.
Before the end of this academic year, I will be communicating further so that you are aware of the Strategic Objectives in place following Ofsted’s feedback and how we will move forward on this journey so that Grange achieves a Good Ofsted within the next 2 years.
I would like to end with 2 quotes from Yr 6 children , who were chatting with me at lunchtime:
“We might not be the best [in the eyes of Ofsted] but we feel that we are the best”
Grange is an adventure!”
Mr Kerbel