Dear Parents and Carers
Today we publish our Ofsted report following our recent inspection. As you will see, we “remain Good” which means we retain all our previous judgements from 2018 as a Good school with an Outstanding Sixth Form. We are happy with this report and believe it is a fair reflection of our school and to fulfil our legal obligation to take all reasonable steps to share our report you will receive an email with a link to it.
This has been my 7th Ofsted Inspection as a senior leader in a school and my second as a Head. In that time I have been upgraded, downgraded and now ungraded and I can say with absolute certainty that this most recent ungraded experience has been by far the best when it comes to improving the school. In a graded inspection, every comment from every inspector is loaded, therefore meaningful dialogue between the inspectors and leaders is limited. In this ungraded inspection, we emerged with page loads of notes which are already being fed into new plans to improve Myton School – it was a refreshing change. It is worth reflecting on the madness that summing up a whole school in one word reflects. In every period of the day we deliver up to 80 classes so between 750 and 800 classes per day, and between 3750 and 4000 per week. Add in 5 breaks and 5 lunchtimes per week plus any other number of clubs and functions. All this, every week for 39 weeks a year is now summed up as “Good”. I know, as do all of you, that in many cases your child’s experience may be “Good”, it may be “Outstanding” and there are times it may well be not good enough depending on the period of the day, the class, the teacher, the cover and so on. However, in the news again this morning, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector when explaining that there will be no pause in Inspections, claimed that parents need the judgements and scores. Speaking as a parent now, I dispute that and believe I am well capable of reading a more detailed report in order to decide which school to send my child to.
Over the years I have met dozens of Ofsted inspectors and they are all values driven individuals who want to improve the system and help children receive the best education possible. However, the system within which they work needs to be examined following the tragic events in Berkshire where a long serving and well respected Headteacher, Ruth Perry, took her own life following an “Inadequate” inspection report. All Heads know that Mrs Perry isn’t the first and we also know colleagues who have been made very ill by the process and been driven from the profession. This helps no child as increasingly schools have to advertise two, three or four times to fill the Headship as so few want the job. This is also reflected throughout every role in a school as the accountability system, which Ofsted perches at the top of, makes it increasingly hard to fill teaching and support staff posts. And whilst Ofsted is not the only aspect to education which needs urgent review, it is in the news and the time is right to have the debate and in my personal view, move to ungraded inspections which give so much more to school improvement.
All at Myton School join the profession in sending our thoughts and best wishes to the family, friends and community of Ruth Perry.
Best wishes
Andy Perry
Head Teacher