The Executive Headteacher at Aylestone School, Simon Robertson, has offered his thoughts on the outcome of an Ofsted Inspection that took place just before Christmas.
The inspection saw the school classed as ‘good’ for personal development, recognising the excellent work staff do. This grading continues the positive progress for Aylestone, which has seen the school repeatedly praised for improvements made following Ofsted monitoring inspections over the past two years, including in July 2021.
Speaking about the result of the inspection back in December, Mr Robertson said:
“I am very pleased the school has been graded as good for personal development and that the improvements being made here continue to be acknowledged.
“Whilst overall grading for the school has remained as Requires Improvement, this inspection took place at a time when the Omicron variant of Covid was causing major staffing issues both locally and nationally. In acknowledgement of this, Ofsted decided to call a halt to all inspections the week after we were visited.
“Of the points raised in the report – which relate to inconsistencies in a small number of subject areas – the majority are directly linked to the unique issues presented by Covid and the unavoidable disruption this caused to schools everywhere. As a school we were aware of these and were already actively tackling them.
“My staff have been under enormous pressure during the pandemic and our pupils and their families have been too. However, the school continues to thrive and the fact we are oversubscribed in every age group for September 2022 is all the evidence I need that this is a good school.
“The excellent progress the school has made is echoed in the amount of supportive feedback Ofsted received from our parents through their online survey. These results mirror the positive comments we always receive when we welcome visitors to our school and more than 300 parents were shown around in October during our open events.
“Almost every comment I heard was favourable in terms of the atmosphere here and it was very rewarding that the visitors could all clearly see the thriving school that I know Aylestone is.
“Everyone at the school remains focused on delivering the very best education possible for all our students.That will continue to be our goal and I remain hugely proud to be Executive Headteacher at a school that is home to so many fantastic individuals of all ages.”
