'It’s too soon for inspectors to condemn school' says Worthing High School (From The Argus)

'It’s too soon for inspectors to condemn school' says Worthing High School

10:10am Tuesday 5th February 2013 in News By Peter Truman

A failing school has defended its poor performance saying it is too early to judge.

Worthing High School was placed into special measures after receiving the lowest grade possible in three out of four categories in its latest Ofsted inspection.

The report, which was published this morning, said “weak teaching” meant students were making inadequate progress.

Inspectors added: “Students’ knowledge and understanding in English and science are not good enough.

Inspectors saw too much less effective and inadequate teaching, which explains why students are making poor progress in some subjects.”

The report also said students from minority ethnic groups were lagging behind their classmates.

But the school, which recently became an academy following a tumultuous ten month saga including staff strikes, said it was too soon to be judged.

'Clear message'

Carolyn Dickinson, acting headteacher, said: “Ofsted have provided us with a clear message of the priorities we must focus on over the next two terms.

“I was pleased to see that Ofsted acknowledged teaching is improving across the school as a result of the action taken by the new leadership team during autumn term.

“However, as the new team has only been in place for one term insufficient progress had been made across all subject areas at the time of the inspection.

“We are determined to ensure the school tackles the issues identified by Ofsted and have put a rigorous action plan, which will ensure we remain focused on the key areas for improvement.”

Disappointed

Worthing MP Tim Loughton also backed the school despite the criticism levied by Ofsted.

He said: “The decision by Ofsted to place Worthing High School in special measures is obviously disappointing but I am sure parents will have been encouraged by the many positive things the inspectors had to say about the high attainment in certain areas and the behaviour of the pupils in particular.

"It is also important to appreciate that much of the criticism is historic and that it is too early to assess the progress being made by the new management team and especially an influx of impressive new staff.”

• Please note in our article “School falls into special measures” we said inspectors had judged the performance of students in English and maths as poor. This should have read English and science. The Argus is happy to clarify this point.

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