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A message from Patrick Leeson:

28 April 2015 weekly update

28 April 2015

This week's e-Bulletin gives an update on the latest Ofsted data for Kent schools and the opportunity to apply for Senior Improvement Advisers for the Primary phase.

Dear Colleagues

Ofsted Update

Overall, the latest Ofsted data for Kent shows that 79% of schools are rated good or outstanding, compared to 80% nationally. This includes 17% of schools judged to be outstanding and 62% judged to be good.

At present, 83% of Secondary schools, 77% of Primary schools, 87% of Special schools and 91% of PRUs in Kent are judged to be good or outstanding. 90% of Early Years settings are good or outstanding. 

In Kent, there are 343 good and 93 outstanding schools, 98 schools requiring improvement (including 82 Primary schools and 12 Secondary schools) and 18 schools in a category, out of a total of 552 schools that have a current inspection result.

In July 2014, the percentage of good and outstanding schools was 75%, compared to 68% at the same time in 2013, 59% in 2012 and 55% in 2011.

Of the 72 schools inspected so far this school year 65% were judged to be good or outstanding, compared to 61% in 2013-14, which is a better rate of improvement.

The greatest improvement is in Primary Schools, where 68% of the 56 schools inspected since September have been judged good or outstanding, compared to only 54% in 2013-14.  In the same period 12 Secondary schools have been inspected so far this year and only five of the schools were judged good or outstanding.

There is most variation, between districts, in the quality of Primary Schools

District

Outstanding

Good

RI

Inadequate

Total Good Outstanding

% Good Outstanding

Ashford

3

31

4

0

34

89

Canterbury

5

19

8

1

24

73

Dartford

1

18

6

0

19

76

Dover

4

33

2

0

37

95

Gravesham

2

13

6

2

15

62

Maidstone

6

22

12

3

28

65

Sevenoaks

6

29

7

0

35

83

Shepway

7

16

7

2

23

72

Swale

5

28

10

3

33

72

Thanet

5

14

8

1

19

68

Ton & Mall

8

26

7

1

34

81

Tunbridge

7

1

5

1

25

81

Kent

59

267

82

14

326

77

Currently, 81% of pupils in Kent attend a good or outstanding school compared to 70% in July 2013 and 77% in July 2014. This means approximately 9250 more children and young people are receiving a better education since last September, including 8500 Primary School pupils.  

The overall figure includes 77% of Primary school pupils (85,567), 86% of Secondary school pupils (82,846) and 94% of Special school pupils (3298) who now attend a good or outstanding school.  

There has been a very good improvement in the numbers attending a good or outstanding Pupil Referral Unit from 30% of pupils in 2012, to 76% in 2013 to 96% currently. The quality of PRUs has improved so that 91% are now good or outstanding.

Many 'satisfactory' or 'requires improvement' schools are well led and making good progress, so that we can be confident of a future good inspection outcome. By summer 2015 we expect at least 82% of schools to be good or outstanding. Over time, this is deliberately ambitious in order to challenge ourselves to continue to increase the rate of improvement in education in Kent.  We expect this positive trend to continue towards our ambitious target of at least 90% of Primary and Secondary schools and 100% of Special schools to be judged good or outstanding by 2018.

Key lessons from schools that achieve a good or better inspection outcome include: a strong focus on improving rates of progress for all groups of pupils; procedures for ensuring the consistency and continuous improvement of teaching; effective use of the pupil premium and other funding to ensure under-achieving pupils catch up quickly and gaps narrow; good use of assessment to feed back to pupils and help them to do better;  effective use of data to track pupils' progress and monitor teaching quality, which informs the school's procedures for targeting improvement activity; accurate evaluation of the school's strengths and weaknesses with clear actions to address under-performance; and clear evidence of improvement since the last inspection.  No school achieves consistency of practice and continuous improvement without highly effective leadership and governance.

As always, we encourage schools to learn from each others' inspection experiences and some of the best preparation for inspection is to talk to a school that has been inspected recently. 

Congratulations and well done to all the schools that have improved and achieved a positive inspection outcome so far this school year.

Senior Improvement Adviser – Primary

We are looking to enhance the School Improvement Team with the recruitment of further Senior Improvement Adviser(s) – Primary, from September 2015.

I am keen to recruit or second effective school leaders in Kent, with a proven track record in school improvement, to one of these leadership posts for Primary education. The salary is negotiable to match or exceed the current salary levels of Headteachers in their current post.

If you are interested in discussing this opportunity please contact me at patrick.leeson@kent.gov.uk.


Patrick Leeson
Corporate Director, Education and Young People's Services