TROUBLE HITS THE SUTHERLAND BUSINESS AND ENTERPRISE COLLEGE  -------- AGAIN !!!

The Sutherland Business and Enterprise College in Trench Telford was recently found to be providing an INADEQUATE standard of education for over 500 pupils in a recent OFSTED Inspection. The school was also issued with a notice to improve and OFSTED have confirmed that the school is classed as a CONCERN.

The Chair of Governors Councillor Keith Austin also decided to only issue parents with page 13 of a 14 page report which is a breach of their legal requirements.   

Students at the college are now starting a petition at the school because they are concerned at the standard of education being offered to them with a great concern being on the subject of English.

Approximately 12 months ago an English teacher left the school on compassionate grounds, but unfortunately, at least 30 pupils were then not adequately taught in this subject.

Over the last 12 months, students saw at least 10 different teachers drift in and out of the classroom and not one teacher carried on teaching where the other left off.

Over the course of this 12 months, students work went unmarked, coursework was not checked and a number of students coursework has now been lost at the school by one of the many teachers that drifted in and out of the classroom.

Students today said,

“The last year has been extremely unsettling for us. We never had a regular teacher, we were often left to our own devices and had to regularly go to the offices to find out if we had a teacher to teach us”

“Our final examinations in English start next week, now we have the additional burden of having to complete a years worth of coursework and get it marked before our examinations start”

“I am one of the fortunate few who have backed up all my coursework on a memory stick, but other students are not that lucky”

“We do not need this kind of pressure this close to our examinations. Some teachers have no problem in suspending children for minor issues, but teachers are allowed to get away with providing a poor level of education and get away with it”

A parent of pupils at the school said today,

“I have grave concerns about what is happening at this school, my concerns have  been expressed to the Head Teacher and the Deputy Head in writing but they refuse to sort out parents concerns adequately”

“I have a meeting with the Head Teacher next week, if my concerns are not addressed adequately, I will have no alternative but to go to the Local Authority and the issues raised could then be forwarded to the Government Ombudsman”

“I have spoken with pupils who are very concerned and would urge every parent who has a child at this school to raise concerns with the Head Teacher immediately.”

“It is not appropriate that children are not being taught to the required standards and it is not acceptable that children’s coursework is lost or at best unmarked this close to their final examinations”

“The school is playing Russian roulette with our children’s education, some of whom have special educational needs and someone must be held to account”

“I note that the Council and Chair of governors remained very quiet when the results of the OFSTED Inspection were released in the Shropshire Star, this is not acceptable and education in the borough has had no effective leadership since the departure of Christine Davies”

The school and the local Authority have a duty of care to our future generations, this is certainly not being implemented at the moment and the current year 11’s at this school are likely to produce the worst set of results this school has seen for sometime, yet the school is not bothered.

SUTHERLAND BUSINESS AND ENTERPRISE COLLEGE IS FAILING TO PROVIDE ADEQUATE EDUCATION.

Every school has a wide range of legal requirements to abide by, one of these legal requirements is to ensure that every parent, guardian, carer of a child at any school receive a copy of an OFSTED report 5 days after they receive the report.

Unfortunately, the Sutherland Business and Enterprise College in Trench has consistently FAILED to meet with this legal requirement.

It is common practice for this school and I suspect other schools do the same, to only issue a brief of the full report. this allows schools to hide the full content of the report and the findings of the HM Inspector who carried the inspection.

The nature of the school communication to parents often places the onus for improving on the pupil or their parent, guardian, carer and allows the school to hide the truth.

SUTHERLAND BUSINESS AND ENTERPRISE COLLEGE was inspected by OFSTED from 30^th September 2009 – 1^st October2009, the report issued by Inspectors is damming and the school is failing, this school has narrowly escaped being placed on special measures despite having had plenty of tax payers money spent on material aspects at this establishment.

A letter sent to a family who have children at the school from OFSTED dated 16^th November 2009 states,

“Sutherland Business and Enterprise College was placed into a category of concern and issued with a notice to improve”

“As a parent of a child at the school, the school should have provided you with a copy of the inspection report”

OFSTED have confirmed that the school received a copy of the Inspection report prior to the 16^th November 2009, yet the school regularly denied having it and the Head teacher refused to release a copy of a report parents have a legal right to receive.

Councillor Keith Austin who fulfils a role as Chair of Governors issued a covering letter and page 13 of the report which was received by parents around the 22^nd November, but the school continued to deny having the OFSTED Inspection report.

This is a clear case of politics interfering with education and truth.

WE NOW HAVE THE REPORT and I can now understand why the Sutherland Business and Enterprise College do not want parents to see it. The school has always held parents and pupils to account but systematically fails to provide adequate education for its pupils.

INSPECTION GRADES

1 = Outstanding 2 = Is good 3 = is satisfactory 4 = is inadequate

Every parent now has a right to be extremely concerned at the standard of education at this school as Inspectors have given the school a grade of 4, stating

Overall Effectiveness: How Good is the school. 4

Comments made by Inspectors Include

“Inspectors judged teaching and learning to be inadequate because too many lessons are still barely satisfactory or inadequate”

“Weaknesses in teaching are responsible for the low achievement and are a major reason why behaviour is adequate”

Outcomes for individuals and groups of pupils 4

Comments from Inspectors include

“Behaviour is not consistently well managed and there is little reference to an agreed code of conduct”

“Feed back to students in inconsistent, with little evidence in most students’ books that they are receiving the diagnostic feedback they need to learn”

“the ‘John Hunt’ programme provides a suitable short-term alternative to lessons and help minimise exclusions although not enough action is taken to improve behaviour.”

The leadership and management of teaching and learning 4

The quality of teaching 4

The effectiveness with which the school deploys resources to achieve value for money 4

Action taken by the school directly after Inspectors left

The school management responded poorly to Inspection and within a period of approximately 10 school days had excluded over 80 pupils for a fixed term.

Parents, guardians and carers were never informed that a harsh line was going to be taken with pupils in what has been called “a knee jerk reaction” to the inspection.

The school has been asked about these exclusions but have ignored written requests, this allows us to assume this was correct, especially as the figure of 88 exclusions was mentioned by a teacher to parents.

Communication with Parents, Guardians, Carers

The school has again been told that it is not doing enough to communicate with parents, guardians and carers and involve them to an adequate level with the school or their children’s progress.

This is not a new concern, it has been mentioned in previous OFSTED reports, mentioned to school management, yet they continue to to perform to the same low level.

Being Held To Account

The Sutherland Business and Enterprise College is a master at holding parents and students to account to any failing, no matter how minor the offence or incident maybe, yet when it comes to dealing with Poor Teaching practices they cover it up.

this is a school, like many others, that are more interested in League tables rather than providing a high quality of teaching.

School Rules and Policy

Rules and policy are often introduced at the drop of a hat. Although every pupil has a log book which includes various rules, they are not an accurate reflection on the rules or policy the school often refers to.

Other failings –

A pupil can be excluded for the most minor of issues, yet the school has never tackled the problem of bullying, this being an issue throughout the borough as identified by MP Mark Pritchard.

One process of the exclusion process is for the pupil and their parents to meet with the management prior to their return back to school.

Unfortunately, it is common place for teachers not to return parents calls when they request a meeting or when a meeting is arranged, the parents and pupil attend the school, but NO member is in attendance, therefore nothing is ever resolved.

School rules are never applied evenly across the board to all pupils, this causes confusion and sends out very mixed messages to pupils and parents.

ISSUES RAISED

When raising concerns with the school, it has to be done in writing so the parent can display that they have tried everything to action any issue. The school is very reluctant to reply to any concern, becomes extremely defensive often blaming the pupil or parent and does not place any communication of the file of the relevant pupil (s). Yet they keep attendance records and quote policy, but will not action their own failings.

A wide range of issues have been raised by parents with school management and adequate time has been allowed for them to give a comprehensive response.

However, these concerns will be raised OFSTED, the Local Authority and it could see a complaint being made to the Government Ombudsman.

The school is failing the pupils and tried to keep the OFSTED report as an in house document and has still failed to ensure that every parent not only knows of its existence, but also has access to it and give feedback with their concerns or even offer support.

A clear breech of a legal requirement.