Education Sccotland's school inspectors publish poor report for Forres Academy
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SCHOOL inspectors have said they will return to Forres Academy to see how major challenges faced by pupils and staff are being addressed.
The report, from a visit carried out in January, stated - ‘Leadership’, ‘Ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion’, and ‘Raising attainment’ are ‘weak’; ‘Learning, teaching and assessment’ are deemed ‘satisfactory’.
The judgements were conducted using a six-point scale: weak is one point above the bottom rating and satisfactory two points above.
The school’s poor attainment record is of particular concern.
According to the inspectors, Forres Academy generally performs worse – or much worse – than a ‘virtual’ school of similar catchment area used as a comparator. It is also criticised for having no effective way of tracking pupil progress in S1-3.
Maths department results come in for particular criticism with attainment performance in numeracy requiring improvement in S4, S5 and S6.
Senior management at the school was also criticised for attainment shortcomings.
The inspectors said: “The senior leadership team needs to have a stronger overview of how each teacher and each department supports raising attainment.”
The inspectors identified four major areas for improvement in the report:
“Strategic leadership of change and improvement across all areas of the school. Leadership at all levels needs to be focussed on improving outcomes for learners;
“Quality of learning, teaching and assessment;
“Teachers should focus on meeting the needs of individual learners. Class lessons need to be more engaging and young people should be involved in leading their learning;
“Approaches to supporting young people’s learning and wellbeing, including planning and review of support for learning. Young people and their parents should be fully involved in decisions that affect them;
“Attainment from S1 to S6. Teachers should track progress at all stages and make sure learner’s progress is understood by young people and their parents.”
Following publication of the report, head teacher, Jan Sinclair, sent a letter out to parents but declined to answer questions from the Gazette.
In the letter, she said: “Whilst there are very important areas for development that we have already begun thorough workaround, by reading the report you will see a large number of positive observations that were captured as well.
“This included praise for work to help young people feel included and valued; support given to pupils from military families; work undertaken in tackling the cost of the school day; partnership work with UHI Moray and clubs and activities offered to help young people develop a range of wider skills.
“The inspection confirmed young people were encouraged by teachers to do the best they can.”
She highlighted the negative impact the poor state of the school building is having on pupils and staff and claimed that many areas identified for improvement were already in the school plans.
She added: “At the most recent release of national attainment the positive destination leaver data for the school was the best in Moray and above national averages.”
Forres Academy’s head and deputy head teachers are now inviting parents into the school to discuss improvement over the next few weeks.
Mrs Sinclair explained: “These discussions will feed into the wider improvement plans for the session ahead.
“The first sessions over the next two weeks will focus on our school vision and values,and also our curriculum rationale and skills.
“Further topics will be looking at wellbeing and relationships; parent reports/parent nights/information events.”
Parents who would prefer to remain unnamed who contacted the Gazette were not impressed.
One said: “The appalling inspection report is painful to read but it is also reassuring to see what parents have been concerned about for some time.
“What has been an excellent school has been allowed to decline.
“A new building is not the answer - the issue is weak leadership.”
Another added: “Parents are to be invited in to engage in discussions about parental engagement but not for discussion around the huge issues which need to be addressed urgently.
“Questions need to be asked and answers given as to why Forres Academy is in the position it currently finds itself.”
Finally, another parent finished: “This is a damning report which will hit staff confidence. But they should be professional, step up to the challenge and make detailed achievable plans to improve experiences for pupils. The whole community can play a part and Moray Council must also find the extra support needed to turn the school around.”
