Swindon Borough Council has mounted a robust defence following claims by Ofsted’s regional lead for the South West that children in Swindon were being ‘failed at every level’ – branding the judgement ‘unfair’ and based on ‘selective’ data.
It highlights the “demotivating impact” the criticisms would have on teachers and that it has “angered and annoyed many headteachers of good and outstanding schools who are doing an excellent job.”
The council’s joint response, directed at parents, staff and residents of Swindon, states: “We were very surprised to receive a letter from Bradley Simmons, Regional Lead for Ofsted in the South West, which was sent to all head teachers, governors and senior leaders of education in Swindon.”
Addressing Mr Simmons’ claims, the council points out that according to Ofsted’s own assessment, 98 per cent of early years settings in the town have been rated as good or outstanding and 92 per cent of primary schools have been rated good our outstanding – this being above national average.
The open letter goes on to say that all primary inspections this term have been at least good, with Nythe Primary School moving from requires improvement to good.
The council is also exceeding the target for a pledge announced last year as part of its Vision for Swindon to increase the percentage of Swindon primary schools graded good or outstanding to at the least the national average by March 2021.
In Mr Simmons’ scathing attack on the council, he accuses it of being “defensive” in to concerns raised “on at least three occasions”. But the council says that in May this year the Council’s Chief Executive and a number of education officers had a positive and open meeting with Mr Simmons, which he described as “encouraging” and “helpful”.
The council’s open letter adds that Ofsted inspectors from the South West ran school improvement training sessions for headteachers and governors in July and the Council, in partnership with Ofsted, arranged a follow-up session in September.
“All the work we have undertaken has been with Ofsted’s full knowledge and we believed we had its full support.”
Responding to the criticism that Swindon’s 2016 phonics outcomes were some of the poorest in the country, with only 76 per cent of six year olds meeting the expected standard, the council says that while phonics test results were “lower than we would like” at the end of Year 1, by the end of Year 2 children have caught up and are above the national average.
Defending the provision of primary education, the local authority says that pupils in the town met the national average for reading, mathematics and grammar – including punctuation and spelling.
The council recognises that writing results are lower this year but points out that following the introduction of a new writing assessment, Swindon schools interpreted marking guidance very strictly whereas other local authorities “appear to have been much more generous in their judgements.”
“We fully expect writing results to improve next year as teachers adjust to the new system and be in line with the national average as in previous years. We feel the data that has been released has been used selectively and to say that schools have “failed” their pupils is overly harsh and indeed unfair. This is particularly the case as the test and assessment data is still unvalidated and the writing assessment has been recognised even by Ofsted as being insecure.”
Turning to the criticisms of secondary education, the council says: “We share concerns about secondary education although we have some very good schools in the town such as Ridgeway, Lydiard Park, Warneford, Commonweal and St Joseph’s.”
It adds that GCSE results have continued to improve and we have seen marked improvements at Nova Hreod and Swindon Academy, which are managed by the United Learning Trust Academy chain.
In the new headline measure of pupils obtaining an A*-C grade in English and mathematics, Swindon pupils’ results improved by 5 per cent against a national improvement of 3 per cent and are now just 2 per cent below the national average. Partnerships with good or outstanding schools are being put in place for Dorcan, Kingsdown, Isambard and Churchfields.
The council adds that all secondary schools bar one are academies - being independent of the Council - and are the responsibility of the Regional Schools Commissioner. Using the English Baccalaureate to criticise Swindon secondary schools is also unfair as many schools choose not to do this as it has a lack of focus on vocational and work-related learning.
The high level of fixed-term exclusions is also of concern to the council: “This has been the subject of discussions by council officers with individual schools, the Swindon Secondary Headteachers’ group and at recent conferences in July and October.”
It adds: “Behind this is the growing number of pupils diagnosed with social, emotional and mental health needs (SEMH). A key target for the Council is to reduce the number of exclusions and to also better meet the needs of SEMH pupils.”
The council says that in Ofsted’s criticism there was no mention of the special schools sector in Swindon, with five out of our six schools being ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ with Uplands being named national school of the year in 2015/16. Lydiard Park Academy received national recognition for becoming a Leading Edge school for consistently demonstrating significant levels of progress, with pupils performing above the national average.
The open letter states that the council and its education department pride themselves on their openness and would welcome an open discussion with Mr Simmons about the issues he raises. It also invites Mr Simmons to discuss the criticisms at the Education Strategy Board’s next meeting in December.
The letter is addressed from Council leader David Renard, Cabinet member for children’s services Fionuala Foley, Council Chief Executive John Gilbert, Chair of Swindon Association of Secondary Headteachers Steve Colledge and Chair of Swindon Association of Primary Headteachers Gary Evans.
It concludes: “On a daily basis we see the good work that is going on in Swindon’s schools. By making his views so public in this way, Mr Simmons must have recognised the demotivating impact they would have on teachers. In fact it has really angered and annoyed many headteachers of good and outstanding schools who are doing an excellent job providing high class education for children and young people whether they are in council maintained schools or academies.
“We welcome the opportunity to discuss this further with Mr Simmons so we can work together to improve education further for all children and young people in Swindon.”
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