Plans to turn 'inadequate' school into academy
by Graham
Tutthill
gtutthill@thekmgroup.co.uk
Plans are being put forward to turn a Dover school - which was
placed into special measures by Ofsted inspectors - into a
sponsored academy.
St Edmund's Catholic School was said to be "inadequate" in many
respects when the inspectors visited the school in January, just
weeks after executive headteacher Chris Atkin resigned.
A new management team from St George's C of E Foundation School
in Broadstairs was brought in to run the school.
But this evening, the Mercury has learned that there are
proposals to make the school a Catholic-sponsored academy, and a
consultation process is to be launched.
The school is currently run jointly by the Catholic Diocese of
Southwark and Kent County Council. If it becomes an academy, it
will be taken out of KCC control, and run entirely by the Catholic
Diocese.
In their report, which was published two weeks ago, inspectors
said the overall effectiveness of the school, pupils' achievement,
the quality of teaching and the leadership and management were all
inadequate, and that the behaviour and safety of pupils required
improvement.
"This is a school that requires special measures," said lead
inspector Robert Ellis.
Among the targets which the school was set was the eradication
of inadequate teaching and the promotion of high professional
standards so that all teaching is good or better by January
2014.
Pupils were said to be behaving better since the new interim
leadership team had raised expectations of how they should
behave.
Governors were said to have failed to address weaknesses
identified by the previous inspection, and they were criticised for
relying too much on information provided by the school's
leaders.
20/03/13
- Click here for more Deal, Dover and Sandwich news...
- Click here for more news from across the county...