![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Forced adademisation of Larkrise School
Jun. 22nd, 2018 03:27 pmDear Anneliese Dodds,
I have just learned that Larkrise, our fantastic primary school, has been given a rating of Inadequate by Ofsted, and will now presumably be forced to become an academy.
Larkrise has recently been going through a period of change with the previous head leaving in December, an acting head taking her place until May, and the new head starting just a few weeks ago.
Two Ofsted inspections have happened, three months apart, during the time when there was not a permanent head teacher. The first kept the rating of the school as Good, the second, just three months later, in the middle of SATs, and before the new head had started, changed that to Inadequate.
I don't want to claim that there are no problems at all with Larkrise - I don't know all the classes, and the Ofsted report raises some legitimate concerns - but the school has always seemed great to me, with a really relaxed atmosphere, lovely teachers, and quite incredibly well behaved children.
What this school needs right now is for the new head teacher to be allowed to look at the problems she sees and sort things out, with the support of the governors and the local authority. It certainly does not need further upheaval and conversion to an academy.
Is there any way you can help us fight to get the newly appointed head, Fi McGreggor, some time to try to sort out our school before it is forced to become an academy?
Yours sincerely,
Duncan Parkes
PS I have additional concerns about what kind of academy sponsor could be forced on Larkrise. This is a very multi-cultural school with children of parents of many religions and none. Any kind of church backed multi-academy trust would be particularly inappropriate.
I have just learned that Larkrise, our fantastic primary school, has been given a rating of Inadequate by Ofsted, and will now presumably be forced to become an academy.
Larkrise has recently been going through a period of change with the previous head leaving in December, an acting head taking her place until May, and the new head starting just a few weeks ago.
Two Ofsted inspections have happened, three months apart, during the time when there was not a permanent head teacher. The first kept the rating of the school as Good, the second, just three months later, in the middle of SATs, and before the new head had started, changed that to Inadequate.
I don't want to claim that there are no problems at all with Larkrise - I don't know all the classes, and the Ofsted report raises some legitimate concerns - but the school has always seemed great to me, with a really relaxed atmosphere, lovely teachers, and quite incredibly well behaved children.
What this school needs right now is for the new head teacher to be allowed to look at the problems she sees and sort things out, with the support of the governors and the local authority. It certainly does not need further upheaval and conversion to an academy.
Is there any way you can help us fight to get the newly appointed head, Fi McGreggor, some time to try to sort out our school before it is forced to become an academy?
Yours sincerely,
Duncan Parkes
PS I have additional concerns about what kind of academy sponsor could be forced on Larkrise. This is a very multi-cultural school with children of parents of many religions and none. Any kind of church backed multi-academy trust would be particularly inappropriate.
