Ofsted Report Positive Progress
On 2nd February 2023 OFSTED carried out a monitoring inspection to evaluate progress since the last graded inspection in November 2021.
The inspector met with the headteacher, governors, including the Chair; consultants working with the school and several staff and students. She has now issued her findings in a short report.
We are extremely pleased to report the inspector’s confidence in leadership and governance. Her feedback to the school was very positive and confirms the school is moving in the right direction to be re-graded as ‘Good’ overall at the next inspection. Parents and carers are reminded the school was graded as ‘Good’ for Quality of Education and the Sixth Form in 2021.
The inspector stated that, since the 2021 inspection, school leaders have acted with urgency to launch an enhanced anti-bullying strategy. There are now more ways to report bullying and the inspector confirmed that school leaders have strengthened systems for gathering information on students’ behaviour and attitudes. The school will continue to embed the strategy so that even more students have confidence in incidents being dealt with effectively.
Overall, the Inspector’s view was that leaders had responded swiftly and professionally to the areas for improvement provided at the end of the last inspection.
Headteacher, Mrs Sally Wilson and Mr James Vaughan, Chair of the Governing Board for The Blandford School, welcomed the publication of the monitoring report.
Sally Wilson said: ” I am pleased with the significant and sustained progress the school has made since our last graded inspection in continuing efforts to stamp out bullying and intolerance and that this has been recognised by the inspector. Our staff, with senior students and the Student Forum have worked incredibly hard with us to strengthen how we support students and challenge discrimination in all its forms.”
James Vaughan said: “I am delighted that the school continues to make positive progress in relation to eradicating bullying and discrimination. The Governing Board has been and remains closely engaged with the headteacher and her staff to ensure that our ‘Educate Don’t Discriminate’ campaign, including our anti-bullying strategy, is fully embedded and successful. We will also engage closely with parents following their opportunity to review this latest report”.
The link to the report is below: