Tiffin (boys) Ofsted report finally published

[happyplaice]

It's been a while coming, but it's now on the Ofsted website. The overall grade is now Good but with 3 Outstanding elements out of the 5 and the reasons for downgrading the other 2 seem a bit vague from my perspective.

One thing that strikes me (and annoys me) about the report is that Ofsted refer to the high proportion of leavers going to "Russell Group Universities" - surely this just reinforces the myth that membership of the Russell Group is a quality benchmark! It makes me question the inspector's judgement. 🙄

The commentary in the report explains the 2 good ratings.

For the first: 'In some subjects, the curriculum does not identify the most important knowledge that pupils need to know and remember...' it says: 'However, the curriculum is not equally strong in all subjects. For example, there is not a coherently planned computing curriculum in place for Years 8 and 9.' and: 'While leaders rightly value department flexibility, whole-school monitoring does not always identify and share the best practice. For example, assessment approaches sometimes use criteria that do not precisely identify the knowledge that pupils need to know and remember.'

For the second: 'Sometimes, leaders and governors do not identify the right priorities to work on. For example, in some curriculum areas, leaders’ tracking and monitoring are not sharp in relation to what is taught in the curriculum.' it says: 'Governors have a clear understanding of their role and provide appropriate
challenge to school leaders. There are plans in place for governors to oversee
specific school priority areas. However, school leaders are not focusing sharply on identifying the most important school priorities.'

Given their intake in terms of ability and behaviour I imagine Tiffin will be disappointed with the outcome. But on the other hand this is their first report for a very long time so Tiffin now have a clear roadmap for improvement under the new framework.