MORE than three years after a popular Warrington primary school was slammed by inspectors and placed in special measures it has again been described as “inadequate.”
Inspectors from Ofsted – the Office for Standards in Education – re-visited Stockton Heath Primary School last month and have again ruled it requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard 
of education.
Staff and governors at the school say they are confident they can improve teaching and learning standards, according to a statement issued by the borough council.
Chairman of governors Rachel Brougham said: “We are absolutely committed to making significant changes and improvements and we are working hard with our staff and the local authority to address the issues Ofsted raise in the report.”
But the Ofsted report states: “The persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement.”
Stockton Heath Primary was first placed in special measures following an inspection in 2008 – a year after a lengthy battle by a parents’ group which unsuccessfully tried to block plans to demolish the 100-year-old school and replace it with a new school built in the grounds.
Shocked governors rejected Ofsted’s findings and lodged a formal appeal. But Ofsted refused to budge
Now the education watchdog has again slammed the school.
They say disruption to staffing, including to the senior leadership team, from the start of the academic year has had a detrimental impact on the school’s performance.
In the absence of the head and deputy head, other members of staff have been unable to take on responsibility because of a lack of expertise and training. Consequently, until recently, there has been no monitoring or evaluation of teaching and learning or performance management of the staff.
“The school’s data previously indicated that a significant number of pupils in Key Stage 2 were underachieving in writing and mathematics. Actions to bring about improvement have been ineffective and this underachievement remains,” Ofsted reports.
Inspectors say self-evaluation has lacked rigour nor given an accurate picture of the school’s performance.
Pupils have found disruption very unsettling and this has led to extremes of poor behaviour that have raised concerns about the safety of pupils and staff in the unit.
However, the deputy headteacher has recently returned to school and taken on the responsibility of acting headteacher. Working in partnership with the acting deputy headteacher, she has quickly taken action to improve matters.
“Nevertheless, leadership and management remain fragile. The situation has highlighted that there is too little delegation of responsibility to staff for promoting school improvement. Consequently, the capacity for sustained improvement is inadequate.”
Ofsted says children make good progress and achieve well in the Early Years Foundation Stage. But this progress is not maintained throughout the rest of the school.
By the end of Year 6, pupils’ attainment is broadly average in English and mathematics, but in most years this represents inadequate achievement from their skill levels on entering school.
Teachers are criticised for not having high enough expectations of pupils and failing to set work that effectively challenges different groups – especially the more able.
Ofsted labels the school inadequate for its overall effectiveness, its capacity for improvement and its outcomes for individuals and groups.
For pupil outcomes, the school is said to be inadequate under five out of 11 headings, for quality of provision it is inadequate under four out of four headings, for leadership and management it is inadequate under seven out of nine headings.
Early years provisions is said to be “good” and other areas are said to be “satisfactory.”
The council statement says the school accepts Ofsted’s findings and recommendations, which include addressing leadership issues and raising standards of mathematics and writing in all key stage 2 pupils.
It stresses that the inspectors’ report also highlights a number of positive aspects of the school life, including the wide range of enrichment activities and educational trips on offer and the positive contribution pupils make to the local community.
The school’s early years provision is rated as good with children behaving well and enjoying learning.
Pinaki Ghoshal, assistant director for children and young people’s services at the council said: “We are working in partnership with the school to bring about swift improvements. The school will be closely monitored by Ofsted and the local authority and progress will be evaluated regularly to ensure the school moves forward and out of special measures.”
The full Ofsted report can be seen at www.ofsted.gov.uk
School again slammed as inadequate
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Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
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This latest Ofsted Report and findings are an utter disgrace. How can a school go from ALWAYS having excellent and well above average/outstanding Ofsted reports for MANY years which had parents queuing at the doors to hopefully get a place there for their child … then get a new head teacher and a new building on the premise that the old building wasn't large enough to house 420 pupils (the new build which cost twice as much as it should have cost by the way ) …. and find itself plummeted into special measures straight away ! That was bad enough but to now be in special measures for the SECOND time is appauling. With class sizes and intake figures dropping all the time they might as well have gone down to a one form entry school … it currently has over 80 empty places .. that is equivalent to almost three full classess and empty places cost money !!!! When are the council going to wake up and put people in charge of the school who can actually run it and make it the excellent school it once was. WAKE UP and get rid of the deadwood before you have to close this school down like all the other schools you've closed due to alleged low intakes !!!!
I suppose the shocked again governors will again reject the findings instead of admitting they haven’t a clue and let someone else have a go.
The old school was consigned to the the heap of rubble in the sky after the head and staff pleaded for a school building fit for education in the 21 century.They got what they asked for, pity the children didnt get the teachers that should have gone with it. Lets hope these children some who have had to see the school fail twice will be able to pick themselves up and make the most of what years they have left in there school lives.
Why doesn’t the council sack the governors, they are clearly not up to the job.
Lookingfromafar…….. I think there are far more people than just the governors clearly not doing their jobs. When a school goes into special measure the council are also involved and have to work with the school (head, goverors, teachers etc) to ensure any failings are improved. The fact that the school managed to come out of special measures first time round and be classed as satisfactory meant they must have done something. But SLAP… back into special measures for the second time now SO WHAT HAS GONE WRONG ? Surely the Councils education department should have still been monitoring the schools standards and progression once it was taken out of SM first time round to get it upto a good or excellent standard not just ‘satisfactory’ which one would expect from a school which was once very good indeed. AND……. TO LEAVE ANY SCHOOL WITH NO HEAD OR DEPUTY INCHARGE is bad enough but to allow it in one whick they KNEW HAD ALREADY FAILED INSPECTION makes it even worse. It appears to me that all those running and teaching in the school AND the council couldn’t really give two hoots about it… what was their catch phrase ? ‘Every Child Matters’… well clearly these kids don’t as they are not getting the level of education they need or deserve and which should be available to them and THAT really annoys me ! I dont care anymore about long saga about the the building as that is history… but I DO CARE about the kids and the way they are going and if they don’t turn things around bloody quickly the school could very well be closed down…… or turned into another Academy School of course 😉
I always thought it looked more like a medical centre than a school, perhaps that’s what it will be turned into? If just a few tweaks were made re the internal walls it could appear as a building built precisely for that purpose! The Lib Dems have been looking for a site for a medical centre for years, if the new school closed (and let’s face it with over 900 surplus primary places in the area even before it was built it was never really needed anyway) it could solve a problem for them. It would also solve a problem for potential housing developers, a medical centre being one of the final pieces of infrastructure needed before any mass green field developments could be authorised. Oh dear! I hope the grass verges don’t start disappearing from Ackers road and Lumb Brook bridge starts ‘crumbling’!
To All, It is very disappointing that the school has been taken into special measures again, but if you take time to read the report you will see that some positives have been highlighted. For example the EYFS the class that my son is in. It is very easy for us all to be critical. We all have a role to play in supporting the school. I would respectfully ask that we are not hoovers of misery and that we support the school as it moves forward. I do feel very sorry for pupils and their families that may not have progressed over the academic year. I do think that removing the designated provision is a positive way forward because I think this area of work must be very resource intense but I'm sure it will also mean a cut in funding to the school.
Ofsted sent out a questionnaire to parents. The recevied 87 completed questionnaires and at Q12 parents are asked – The school is led and managed effectively? 42 strongly agree 39 agree only 5 disagree. This response reflects that parents have trust and I'm sure with everyones support the school will grow strong from this report. Once again please read the report and try not to be too critical because the report has done that for you. As a parent of a pupil at the school I would ask the wider community to support us all as we move forward.
errrmm… where would the 340 kids go to school if they closed it SHA ? Broomfields Junior and the Cobs infant schools were oversubscribed as a lot of kids who should have gone to SH school went / were moved there instead (parental choice) although I did read a while ago that they were hoping to reduce the numbers at those two schools presumably to force people back to SH.
I’m really sorry to say this but how can you conclude from only 87 replies that parents have trust and feel the school is managed effectively. There are approx 340 children in the school so why didn’t the other parents fill their forms in so at least a real analysys could have been made ? You are right though the EYFS is highlighted as being good just as it was last time and indeed always has been … it’s not the areas which are good which are under scrutiny its the area’s which are bad some of which were highlighted last time, which then showed improvements, and which have now rather quickly and surprisingly slipped back down again so once again they are in SM. It is no good having a great EYFS for the standards to lessen as the children go into the other years. I do agree that people need to support the school as it moves forwards and that happened last time.. but there is only so much support you can give if the management , governors, council. teachers or whoever are clearly not making the required effort themselves to address the problems and succeed. It’s not rocket science is it ??
Dizzy, there were already 900+surplus places. The additional 100+ places created by enlarging the school resulted in 1000+ surplus pupil places in a 2 mile area of Stockton Heath. If the 340 children at the school at present filled some of those places there would still be 660+ very expensive to maintain surplus places left!.
Kevin, I thought you lived in Sankey? or are you a councillor for an area you don’t live in?
Hi Baz,
I’m Ward Councillor for Whittle Hall I live in Great Sankey and I am a Parish Councillor for Great Sankey Parish Council. My son goes to Stockton Heath School so that I and my good lady can meet the requirements of the LEA to reach my son in good time if an emergency was to occur.