OFSTED Inspection (January 2006)
Grove was inspected on Thursday 19th and Friday 20th January 2006.
The inspection team was from Tribal Education, based in Bristol. During their two-day visit the team of four inspectors observed lessons and met various individuals to discuss a wide range of aspects of education at Grove.
We would like to thank all those parents who completed and returned questionnaires.
The final report has now been received and we are generally very pleased with this it. We felt that inspectors went out of their way to find and report on the many distinctive features of the school which we have patiently developed over many years. These include:
- an ‘outstanding’ curriculum
- good care, guidance and support which has some outstanding features
- the progression to very high achievement at GCSE by the most motivated students
- excellent opportunities to contribute to the school and wider community
- an especially active school council
- the friendly atmosphere and the good relationships between students and teachers
The tone of the report is very encouraging and gives a lot of credit for a wide range of things.
Nothing at all is deemed unsatisfactory. Inspectors have a range of grades they can give from outstanding to unsatisfactory. Below this, there are special measures which have to be taken to improve quickly. Most schools will therefore emerge with a mixture of good and satisfactory grades. A small number will have outstanding features or will be deemed unsatisfactory.
The grades are largely determined by pre-existing data based on school performance the year before. In our case, the data is very misleading because of the large numbers of students taking vocational courses like NVQ and Key Skills which do not yet count in the points and the league tables. This tends to depress our data and make it seem as if the school is not doing as well as others. We were delighted that these inspectors accepted and understood this fact, though it was very difficult for them not to grade things as ‘satisfactory’ which might otherwise have been ‘good’ if the full credit were given for the achievements of all students. I am pleased to say that this will be the case next year when we will have a much clearer idea of how we genuinely compare with other schools.
The school's response - follow this link
September 2007 update:
Since the OFSTED report GCSE performance has risen significantly (5+ Grades A*-C up 8%)
The curriculum has continued to develop, particularly with individualised learning
The most able students consistently achieve outstanding results
To see the full report in a printable form, CLICK HERE
