"Good Progress Being Made"

On Thursday 19th January, the school received its 8 month monitoring visit from Ofsted. Chris Keeler (HMI) inspected the school for a full day, observing lessons, interviewing staff, interviewing students and meeting the governors and local authority. It was a very full day which provided the inspector with an "all-round" impression of the school.

The purpose of the visit was for Ofsted to judge the progress that the school has made on each of the recommendations made in May 2011 at the last full inspection.

Chris Keeler said the school was making "Good progress" against the recommendations and that by maintaining the pace of improvement, the school will be removed from an Ofsted category at the earliest opportunity in September/October 2012.

Some of the other comments made in the feedback included:

• "This is a different school to the one inspected in May. Significant progress has been made."
• "Students are making much improved progress in lessons."
• "A lot of hard work has gone into improving the school – school leadership are making the right decisions."
• "Clearly improvements have been made with Teaching and Learning. There is lots of productive dialogue in lessons and students are engaged in their learning."
• "English and Maths standards are clearly improving rapidly."
• "There has been a significant improvement in students' behaviour in class and around school. Students understand the rules and consequences."
• "The most significant improvement has been with the school's Leadership and Management. There is good vision from "the top" and the pace of change is relentless."

Chris also thanked the staff for their hard work and commitment to improvement and also the students for being so polite, courteous and honest during his visit.

We will receive a formal letter from Ofsted in 3 weeks detailing their feedback and I will publish this to all families.

Finally, I would like to thank all our families that continue to support Brayton High School during this period of rapid improvement. I assure you that the hard work continues - to make Brayton High School the "best it can be".

Mr Roper - Headteacher