This article describes a highly successful set of Kent secondary school OFSTED outcomes for the School Year 2016-17, along with Medway secondary and Special School results.
80% of the 20 non-selective schools inspected in Kent were assessed as Good, with over twice as many secondary schools inspected as last year. This is running well above the national average of 59% Good or Outstanding assessed up until March 2017, the latest period for which national figures are available, and the 57% of 2015-16. All three grammar schools inspected were found Good.
In Medway, three of the five schools inspected were Good. No schools failed their OFSTED in either Authority, as against 14% across the country.
Special Schools have regularly been the highest performing sector in the county but this year just two out of four were assessed as Good, the other two Requiring Improvement. Just one in Special School in Medway was assessed, Bradfields Academy, which was found to be Outstanding.
Looking forward into the 2017-18 Inspection cycle, I also outline the recent powerful report on Canterbury Academy here, whose previous Inspection I described as ‘OFSTEDputting the boot in’ . This is not for the first time in a Kent non-selective school, as Inspectors attempt to place them in a one size fits all model, which makes the above assessments even more remarkable……
A previous article reported on all local OFSTED Reports between September and Easter.
You will find further details and the latest Local Authority and National outcomes below. Secondary school outcomes and further details about each school, including admission outcomes, appeals, and GCSE performance are shown for Kent and Medway. I reported on last year’s OFSTED performance for secondary schools here.
The following links will take you to further details about individual: Kent Secondary Schools; and Medway Secondary Schools, although some sections are in process of updating.
| Kent & Medway Secondary OFSTED Outcomes Sept 2016 - July 2017 | |||||||
| Outstanding | Good | Requires Improvement | Inadequate | Total | Up | Down | |
| Kent Grammar | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Kent Grammar % | 100 | ||||||
| Kent Non-Selective | 0 | 16 | 4 | 0 | 20 | 1 | 0 |
| Non-Selective % | 80 | 26 | 4 | ||||
| Kent Total | 0 | 19 | 4 | 0 | 23 | 1 | 0 |
| Kent Total % | 83 | 17 | 4 | ||||
| Medway | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 |
| Medway % | 60 | 40 | 0 | 20 | |||
Medway Academies | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 |
Medway Academies % | 0 | 60 | 40 | 0 | 20 | ||
National % Sep - March 17 | 4 | 55 | 27 | 14 | |||
National % 2015-16 | 5 | 52 | 32 | 12 | |||
Academies: The Abbey School; Ebbsfleet Academy; Hayesbrook School; Homewood School; Leigh UTC; Marsh Academy; Mascalls Academy; St Anselm’s RC School; St George’s CofE School, Gravesend; St Simon Stock Catholic School; Spires Academy (up from Requires Improvement); Ursuline College; Wilmington Academy. I
‘Requires Improvement’ Schools: in Kent these are all academies: Dover, Christ Church Academy; High Weald Academy, Cranbrook; Oasis Isle of Sheppey Academy; and Towers, Ashford.
I commented on the OFSTED Report of Leigh UTC in my previous article.
Spires Academy in Sturry, inspected in May, appears to have emerged from a dark period, having been run by the controversial Executive Head of Simon Langton Grammar School for Girls, now resigned, during which it was issued with a Warning Notice from government over unacceptably low standards. It has now been taken over by the E21C Academy Trust in Bromley.
Nexus Foundation Special School in Tonbridge, was found to Require Improvement, having changed its name from Ridgeway School, which had previously been Kent’s only Special School in Special Measures. Presumably the name change is an attempt to shake off the school's poor reputation.
The Valence School, a residential special school, all children also having with physical difficulties, was also assessed as ‘Require Improvement’, but down from ‘Good’, in a critical report. This will inevitably have been influenced by a Social Care OFSTED Inspection in March that failed the school’s Boarding provision.
Four of Medway’s five Special Schools are academies, along with one Free Special School, and Bradfields Academy has become one of three to hold an Outstanding OFSTED performance, up from Good, in the only Medway Special School Inspection this year.