Ofsted Inspection

Birches Head Academy was inspected by Ofsted on the 3 and 4 October 2023.

For lots of reasons, this process was a very difficult one, and the school has been in dispute with Ofsted about some of the conclusions that they reached, the wording of the report and their process and approach to the inspection. Irrespective of our differences, however, it is right that our community sees the full report.

At the end of a very challenging two days, Ofsted judged the school to have serious weaknesses.

As you will see in the final report, which is below, the school was graded as Requiring Improvement in three of the four categories that we were judged against. The inspectors did, however, find Behaviour and Attitudes to be Inadequate. This is what is known as a “limiting judgement” that means that the school was found to be “Inadequate” overall.

Clearly this judgement does not match our aspirations and expectations for our school community. While we are fully aware that there is much more for us to do, we do not feel it is fair that the overall judgement is so heavily reliant on a number of individual interviews when they noted throughout the inspection that they observed areas of real progress. This is the crux of our dispute with Ofsted, as we believe that their response was disproportionate when considered in the context of the school’s strengths and the positive evidence the inspectors saw across the school during the two days of inspection.

That being said, we accept that this is the framework against which schools are judged – and that is why we have worked tirelessly since the inspection to address any concerns that have been raised. We have already taken decisive and swift actions to bring things back to ‘good’ across all areas of the school.

It is also important to reiterate that the school has been judged to have serious weaknesses rather than being placed in special measures.

A judgement of ‘Serious weaknesses’ means that although the school has been given an overall judgement of ‘inadequate’, Ofsted has concluded that leaders and governors at our school have demonstrated the capacity to improve.

Given that the two other schools in the Trust have recently been inspected Ofsted and received Good and Outstanding judgements, we are confident that with further rigour, pace and purpose we can get our school to where our community deserves it to be.

A copy of the BHA Ofsted Inspection Report can be found here.