Parent & Carer Update - Ofsted
In this brief update I will focus on three areas,
- Feedback from an Ofsted monitoring visit in July 2021 which went very well
- The return of Family Forum (or Parent and Carer Forum as we used to call it)
- A quick questionnaire for you to complete on how the first few weeks of term have gone
Feedback from Ofsted
We were visited by Ofsted for a monitoring visit right at the end of the Summer term. We were pleased that the inspector recognised that leaders and those responsible for governance are taking effective action.
The tone of their short report was very positive and included positive comments about
- the new structure of the senior leadership team which is having a positive impact on teaching, learning and the curriculum.
- a new Assistant Principal who is improving communication with our parents, carers and families.
- “acting swiftly” following the pandemic to put curriculum changes in place. This is particularly impacting on how we are helping students learn new knowledge. You will have seen from Mr Allen’s email about curriculum last week that all of our new curriculum plans for every subject in every year are now available for you to see on our website.
- Behaviour which they observed as “calm and orderly” due to our revised behaviour management policy. They were also positive about the additional support our specialist staff provide through a personalised curriculum.
Ofsted also asked us to consider further areas to develop
- To not use GCSE grades at Key Stage 3 which we will stop this academic year.
- While recognising that sometimes additional support for students with special needs from other agencies is out of our control we do want to further improve communication to the families of students with SEND which is why we have recently introduced a Family Forum focussed on SEND to help families understand how SEND works across Devon.
- Phonics is not normally taught in secondary settings other than to students with SEND however, we are aiming to increase staff understanding of phonics this year to help students become even better readers. This will build on the significant impact on reading ages that our Accelerated Reader programme is also having.
A link to the report can be found at Ofsted | Exmouth Community College
We are really pleased with the outcome of the report since Ofsted recognised that even during the pandemic we continued to enhance our procedures around behaviour as well as rewriting every curriculum in every subject for every year group based around mastery and the retention of knowledge. This work has been based around the latest research and by visiting some of the best schools in the country to see their practice and apply it to our context.
The parent and carer survey completed before the OfSTED visit was also the most positive we have had since Ofsted began their surveys. Thank you for your support – we really appreciate it.
The return of Family Forum (previously known as Parent/Carer Forum)
Unfortunately, due to Covid, we had to halt our put our Parent/Carer Forum on hold, however, we are now in a position to restart these meetings.
Our next Family Forum meeting will take place on Thursday 2nd December in the Telfer Centre (Gipsy Lane) at 5:30pm.
The Family Forum will happen every other half term with an SEND focussed Family Forum to demystify SEND in between.
Places will be limited since we want to give everyone the chance to have individual questions answered. The session will follow the format of previous forums whereby the senior team present on a couple of current issues, then we answer some questions that have been sent in prior to the meeting and then there is time afterwards for a cup of tea and individual discussions to be held with members of the senior team.
This particular meeting, our presentations will focus on updating you about our new curriculum and on our approaches to behaviour for learning.
In order to express your interest in attending the evening, you will find an invite at the end of the questionnaire which you can access via the link below. There is also a chance on the form to submit a question that you would like answered at the Forum.
Feedback from you
We are always keen to receive your feedback and do our best to take the views of parents and carers into account. As we have developed various aspects of the College your feedback has been important and has led to changes such as retaining students wearing their the PE kit on the day they have for most PE lessons for this term.
In order to continue this process we have put together a short survey based on the Ofsted questionnaire to get your feedback on how the first few weeks have gone.
This is particularly important now that schools are being advised by Public Health England that we are living with Covid and so extra-curricular clubs and activities, visits, along with music concerts and 10 Tors expeditions, have now restarted.
The form only takes a minute to complete and at the end of the form is the invite to Family Forum.
Thanks in advance for your feedback.
Andrew Davis
Principal