MIKE WELSH, headteacher of Goddard Park Academy, speaks out against the letter from Ofsted’s regional director accusing schools of failing Swindon’s pupils:

I HAVE received a letter on behalf of Bradley Simmons, regional director at Ofsted which talks of poor performance in Swindon schools.

I can only relate to primary school performance and appreciate that a number of Swindon secondary schools are going through structural change to create the conditions for improving their pupils’ results.

In regard to primary schools, I would like to challenge Mr Sim- mons for his poor use of data. Swindon children’s primary results have consistently been nearly at the top of all the 15 local authorities in the south west including Bristol, Bath, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Plymouth Exeter, Torbay, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall in 2013-2015. By any comparison this is a good level of attainment.

Mr Simmons data analysis for primary schools is clearly inadequate. He simply takes one year and fails to consider trends.

“Primary school performance, which has previously shown a positive trend of improvement in Swindon, is now a concern” - this was the first year of the new end of primary tests (KS2 SATS).

The whole of primary education in England has been let down by inadequate preparation by Government agencies for this and in particular in writing.

To quote the percentage of Swindon children in 2016 who have a low combined score in reading, writing and maths is simply linking the low scores in the writing assessment.

Everyone understands the bugs in any new system in life and this is particularly so with this year’s KS2 SATS. For this reason a whole range of key education national figures set out that these results should not be relied upon by themselves and should be only considered as part of a future trend.

We want every child in at least a good school. In Swindon’s primary schools, we have excellent leadership, teachers and support staff who dedicate themselves to high quality teaching and consequent very good impact upon children’s learning.

Mr Simmons, I challenge you to come and see how well our primary school children are being taught.

We do not have our heads in the sand and appreciate as do all schools that we are in a constant state of improvement.

My staff are engaged in nine small scale action research projects to ensure our impact is the very best it can be.

This includes the 2016 KS1 outcomes and the phonics test. What we do need is stability so that our children can attain the high standards we expect of them and in my school, which serves Park North, what were the 2016 results for our children achieving the expected national standard?

KS2 reading 95 per cent, KS2 maths 95 per cent and KS2 spelling, punctuation and grammar 100 per cent and the inappropriate writing assessment 59 per cent, still some six per cent above the average.

Mr Simmons, do not run our children down as they have worked so very hard.

We would expect a more in-depth analysis of trends before you contact Swindon primary schools again. We can then begin a professional dialogue.