Upcoming inspection:
What can you do to support? Log into Parent View
Many of you will know that the school is due a visit from Ofsted within the next few weeks. The school has had two successive judgements of ‘requiring improvement’ in 2012 and 2014. The Department for Education (DFE) rules state that if a school receives three consecutive judgements of ‘requiring improvement’ it must join a Multi Academy Trust. Our school is currently part of an Umbrella Trust, NEEEP, which the DFE no longer recognises. Therefore the school is being asked, once again, to review its partnerships moving forward. This is part of the Government’s national strategy. Many schools are in our position. Over six months ago work began to develop a Multi Academy Trust from within NEEEP which involved HDHS. Becoming part of this group would allow us to continue the valuable work with neighbouring schools which has contributed to our improvements. The DFE will not allow us to join this Trust unless we achieve a ‘Good’ in our forthcoming inspection. This is a real possibility. The school has a great deal of evidence of the improvements it has made over the last two years. We do however, need your support.
Ofsted will ask you, as parents, for your views about the school when we are notified of their visit. There is also a portal which you can access called ‘Parent View’ at https://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/. This is a brief questionnaire regarding key issues. We receive positive comments in school all the time – they outnumber the very small number of negative comments by far. The reason I would ask you to access Parent View is that it is natural for us to refrain from actively seeking to stress the positives. However, it would be very useful on this occasion. I know from talking to parents that many of your children have enjoyed events such as:
Day trips, drama productions, team competitions, Sports Day, The Hair Show, Team Sports, Skiing Trips, Duke of Edinburgh Awards, Children’s University, Summer School, Skills Day, Kinder Transport Project, Outward Bounds Week, Sports Personality and Awards Evening, to name but a few.
These are just a few of the Extra Curricular activities the school offers in addition to the improvements in educational standards we are driving. Possibly your son or daughter has benefited from the new Post 16 Common Room or use of iPads or had good experiences in K Zone. If there are elements of our provision which you have appreciated such as the commitment of staff to revision classes, booster days or extra support then please take a few minutes to tell us via Parent View.
Quite rightly we ask parents to tell us when we get it wrong and need to change what we do. It might be very important that you also take a few minutes to tell if we have got things right.
Many thanks for your support.
Rob Garrett
Headteacher
