THE reputation of Bridlewood Primary has been dealt another blow after Ofsted decided to put the school into special measures following a damning inspection.

Parents were informed about the highly-critical report this week following a visit by the education regulator before the summer holidays.

One of the most scathing findings was that the school was “failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education”.

In three out of five areas, including leadership, quality of teaching and outcomes for pupils, the school, which was previously rated good in 2012, was deemed to be inadequate.

Four inspectors drew the conclusion that the “school has declined significantly” since their last visit and as a result would be putting them into special measures.

The report said: “There has been a time of considerable disruption in the leadership of the school. This turbulence has contributed to the school’s decline.

“Leaders did not plan and implement the changes to the national curriculum when it was introduced. They acknowledge that they did too little and too late.

“Governors did not robustly challenge school leaders about the school’s results in 2016. As a consequence, little was changed to improve outcomes for pupils. The school’s self-evaluation was over-optimistic and inaccurate.

“Pupils are only just beginning to catch up on lost learning. There is a considerable legacy of underachievement to overcome.”

In 2016, less than one third of pupils reached the expected standard for their age in reading, writing and maths by the end of KS2 and as a result Bridlewood was ranked in the bottom five per cent of all schools.

The behaviour of pupil’s was also a concern along with the school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare as well as their early years provision.

Ofsted say the school has a long road ahead in order to gain any improvements but staff must rapidly work to improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment by ensuring that assessment accurately and quickly identifies those pupils who are not making the progress they should, particularly most-able and disadvantaged pupils.

Staff also need to raise their expectations to provide the appropriate level of challenge for the most-able pupils.

It is not the first time that Bridlewood’s reputation has been put into the spotlight within the last 12 months.

In March, the school mistakenly sent a confidential letter discussing the redundancy of a member of staff to parents and in December a list of children entitled to free Christmas lunches was sent to every parent.

While the Ofsted report criticised much of school’s work, it did, however, praise new headteacher Vicky Sammon for trying to right the wrongs identified from the visit.

“Staff, pupils and parents feel that the new headteacher has brought a different approach,” it read.

“She listens carefully and responds to concerns raised to her.

“In the short time she has been in post, the new headteacher has swiftly changed many of the school’s systems, including assessment, staff appraisal and support, the school’s marking and feedback policy and curriculum planning.

"However, it is too soon for the impact of these actions to be seen in pupils’ achievements.”

In a letter to parents, the school said because of the Ofsted grading, it will now be required to become a sponsored academy and as such, they “will be working with the local authority and Regional School Commissioner to find an appropriate partner for Bridlewood”.

The letter adds that a meeting has been arranged for tomorrow night at 6pm (Sept 28) for parents to discuss the report outcome and the support plan which has been put in place. It is understood Swindon Borough Council’s head of education Peter Nathan will be on hand to answer any questions.

Mrs Sammon said: “The governors and staff are clearly very disappointed with the outcome of our recent Ofsted inspection which rates the school currently as ‘inadequate’ and requiring ‘special measures’.

“There has been significant input from the local authority since Christmas and further changes implemented after Easter following my appointment as headteacher at Bridlewood Primary school.

“There was not sufficient time for this support and the actions taken to have had an impact on the progress and outcomes for our pupils, particularly in our most recent SATs results at the end of year 6 and particularly for our most able pupils.

“We are committed to continuing the improvements for the pupils of Bridlewood and we are confident that with some additional external support, we can secure the outcomes expected of our pupils this year.

“The governors and whole staff team are fully engaged in school improvement for Bridlewood and we have put in place a robust school development plan (SDP) which addresses all areas of development identified by the Ofsted report.

“We were pleased that our Early Years outcomes and Year 1 phonics outcomes for pupils this year, continue to be above the national average and that we received praise for our sports provision, safeguarding arrangements and opportunities for social, moral, spiritual and cultural activities.

“I would like to praise the hard work and effort of the staff, particularly over the last six months under new and changing leadership.

“The school was slow to implement changes to the national curriculum in 2014 and the subsequent raised expectations for pupil outcomes in 2016, but I am confident the school now has the systems, processes and monitoring in place to move forward rapidly.

“Our ambition and drive for the school is to provide the very best education for all our children, going forward will remain, as we continue our journey back towards ‘good’ and beyond at our next inspection.”