Ofsted unfair

I have been involved with Littlehampton Community School (LCS) and TLA for the past 19 years. I saw many improvements during my association with LCS and TLA.

Let me say quite clearly that TLA is an improving school and, I believe, will continue to improve in the years ahead.

There was no need to ‘stand down’ the academy council, nor for the principal to be removed. What the Woodard Academies Trust should have done was wait for the report to come out, then set up a meeting with the principal and his senior leadership team and representatives of the academy council. We could all have sat down together and worked out a strategy for the next phase of TLA.

Woodard carried out an annual review in September, 2013, and the judgment made about the academy council was ‘the academy council reviews the academy’s performance regularly and has a good understanding of its strengths and areas for development’.

Going back 12 months to the previous Woodard annual review, it was said: “The academy council plays an active role in monitoring the progress of the academy on behalf of the trust and has devised an appropriate schedule of activity, including reviews of aspects of the academy’s work. In this way the principal and his senior team are supported in their work, as well as being held to account for the impact of their actions.”

The recent Ofsted report highlighted a number of issues that will need to be addressed right across the school but I, with many others, don’t believe that the report is a fair reflection of the whole school.

But let’s be positive about TLA and look forward to a brighter future.

The GCSE results in 2013, although disappointing, were the second best ever in the history of TLA/LCS. For the first time ever, more than 50 per cent of students gained higher grades in English, maths and science, the number of A*/A grades increased slightly and the number of students with five A*-C grades improved slightly to 67 per cent. The five students with A*-G grades is at 96 per cent, just above the national average.

The huge focus on science was rewarded with the proportion of students gaining at least two higher grades going up by 19 per cent. Media achieved 100 per cent A*-C, art and design, biology and chemistry all achieved 91 per cent and physics 88 per cent.

English, English literature, art and design, French, German, Spanish, PE and media all met or exceeded their A*-A targets.

The sixth form college proved a great place to be, as 100 per cent of the students passed their A-levels – this was a first for the college and well deserved.

So, while there is much work to be done, it is not all doom and gloom.

Roger Purdom

Meadow Way

Littlehampton

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