Dear Parents

We are sending this letter as a follow-up to last weeks meeting when we explained and discussed the implications of the recent Ofsted report.   Please take time to read it and if you have any further questions don’t hesitate to contact school and come and have a chat about it.

An Ofsted inspection takes place over 1½ days and therefore provides a snapshot of school life. The team looked at various aspects of our school and, in many cases, the judgements made were very favourable. The safeguarding issues, which I will explain later in this letter, are a ‘limiting judgement’, which means that, no matter how good other aspects of our work are, the overall assessment is dictated by that judgement. That is why we have received a Notice to Improve – purely for our safeguarding arrangements.

That judgement apart, we were very pleased with many aspects of the report that recognised the good work and many improvements that have taken place since the last inspection including:

•         Improvement in pupil’s behaviour: “good and in lessons, on many occasions, behaviour is outstanding”

•         Pupils’ attainment and progress are improving

•         Good and steadily improving outcomes and progress in Early Years Foundation Stage

•         Good progress made by pupils with Special Educational Needs

•         The adoption of a healthy lifestyle by our children

•         The contribution made by pupils to school and the wider community

and…

•         That many of our children enjoy coming to school!

However, as many of you know, the school was given a rating of 4 = Inadequate and is now on ‘Notice to Improve’.  This was because the school failed to meet very recently introduced standards on safeguarding. 

Safeguarding:

Safeguarding is not just about protecting children from deliberate harm. It includes many other aspects which our school takes very seriously and which we do well.  Examples include:

·         first aid (all staff have completed basic first aid training last August);

·         Health and Safety;

·         meeting the needs of pupils with medical conditions;

·         internet safety; and

·         behaviour, to name but a few.

Some issues were identified in respect to access to the external classrooms, record keeping and the frequency of our safeguarding training. These led to the ‘Notice to Improve’ as a consequence of the safeguarding issues identified. Even though we were judged good in many categories, including our Early Years provision, the nature of a ‘limiting judgement’ means that we were automatically downgraded.  Where a school is judged to be inadequate in relation to the quality of the schools procedures for safeguarding, the school’s overall effectiveness is also likely to be judged inadequate.

We have already begun to take steps to address these issues:

• Staff Records
  All staff records have been updated and completed.  I must emphasise that all appropriate checks had been and will be carried out either by school or Local Authority personnel services.  The way in which this data was recorded wasn’t consistent with recently introduced requirements.
• Physical Security
  This finding focuses on the outdoor classrooms, not the main building. This is why we have been constantly improving our security arrangements e.g. all visitors must now sign-in and receive a visitor sticker. The team did not feel there was an issue with play times and dinner times because there are always staff on duty on the playgrounds and steps. After the Christmas holiday you will see an interior fence will have been erected in front of the main entrance. The gate will be operated by a buzzer/intercom system and all visitors to school will have to come to the office first before entering the school buildings.
• Safeguarding training
  Safeguarding training is being updated for all staff in the new year, although everyone had already completed this training in the past.

These safeguarding issues can very quickly be resolved. This gives us time to focus on the other areas for improvement ahead of our next inspection which were:

 These areas for improvement had, in some cases, been identified through our own analysis and formed part of our current School Development Plan. We remain fully focussed on improving pupils’ achievement and have a clear vision of how to improve quality at Park View School.

Thank you for your continued support, in particular in helping us implement the new security measures now required. Please don’t hesitate to contact school if you would like to discuss this further.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Mr S Dennis                                                           Mrs K M Yarnall

Chair of governors                                                   Headteacher