Academy boss promises to turn around ‘inadequate’ Spalding school

The headteacher getting ready to take over a Lincolnshire school rated as ‘inadequate’ believes she can turn around its fortunes.

Thomas Cowley High School, located in Donington near Spalding, was inspected by Ofsted in early July and received an overall rating of inadequate for quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management.

The South Lincolnshire Academies Trust (SLAT) were asked by the Department for Education (DfE) to broker the school into its trust for September 2022, becoming a new school called Cowley Academy.

Prior to the Ofsted inspection, the DfE had identified that the school required improvement, which is why SLAT will be officially managing the school from next month and has offered some interim support since January this year.

The school will now have a fresh start and the Trust’s executive headteacher Lucy Conley told The Lincolnite that they “will improve the school”.

She sent a lengthy letter to parents and carers to reassure them about the school’s future, which “I know will be a far more positive one from September 1, 2022.”

Ofsted says the school must improve

In the report Thomas Cowley High School is described as a “friendly school where pupils feel safe and have good relationships with staff’. However, “pupils and staff have been let down” and “many senior leaders left the school recently,” the report continues.

Various failings are listed within the report including “pupil are not getting the education they should”, “leaders offer them a narrow and unsuitable range of subjects”, and “the school has low expectations of what pupils can achieve”.

The report adds that in many lessons pupils are not challenged and the programme for personal development “is not effective”.

It is also noted that pupils with special education and/or disabilities (SEND) do not have their needs identified, assessed or met, and leaders and teachers do not give them the support they need to thrive.

The report goes on to say that “until recently, leaders did not check the wellbeing and attendance of pupils who are educated at off-site alternative provisions”, which leaves them at risk.

However, it is acknowledged in the report that the “school is going through a difficult period of change” where “key leaders and staff have endeavoured to make sure that pupils feel cared for”.

Whilst many pupils are friendly and polite, the report states that a small minority do not treat others with respect and there is some vandalism. The report adds that some pupils make derogatory comments that upset others, and there is some disruption to learning which teachers do not deal with consistently.

A high number of pupils are often absent from school and the report says that leaders do not track attendance effectively or give them the support they need to improve their attendance.

The arrangements for safeguarding are described in the report as not effective, but that staff are vigilant to signs that a pupil may need support and report their concerns prompts.

Glenn Martin, Interim Head of School at Cowley Academy, said “The school community are obviously disappointed with this Inadequate outcome and how the report represents our school, but it is also important to accept the report in its entirety and recognise that things do need to change.

“The school will join the South Lincolnshire Academies Trust on 1st September 2022 as Cowley Academy. I am confident that the future for the school is an exciting one and the Trust vision is one the school will now adopt, with the philosophy of offering exceptional education to young people working within a selective area. This is something we feel the students at Cowley Academy deserve.”

Lucy Conley, Executive Headteacher at the South Lincolnshire Academies Trust, said: “Rather than focus on the past, we want to look to the future and we see Cowley Academy joining our Trust as being an incredible opportunity for the school to work as part of a group of non-selective secondary schools in Lincolnshire.

“All of the current Trust schools are hugely successful, which is what we all want to see for Cowley Academy. I am confident that the school will rapidly improve and all parents, carers and students can be completely reassured that all of the staff at the school will continue to work hard with the support of Mr Glenn Martin, officially appointed as Head of School from 1st September 2022, and the Trust leaders to ensure that Cowley Academy returns to its rightful place of being a Good school in Lincolnshire by improving behaviour and attitudes to learning; SEN; personal development and teaching and learning.

“It is my strong view that all young people deserve to go to a school that is at least good and one that they feel proud to be a part of.”

South Lincolnshire Academies Trust had moved Spalding Academy (previously Sir John Gleed School) from inadequate to good within three years of being in the Trust.

More recently, it has improved Giles Academy in Old Leake, Boston, to a school where the students are proud to attend and where they now achieve well. The other school in the Trust – Bourne Academy – was rated as good earlier this summer.

Mrs Conley told The Lincolnite: “This is the third inadequate school we have taken over since 2016 and all our schools are doing really well – this is why the DfE approached us to work with Thomas Cowley High School.

“We have now today (Monday) been given a unique reference number for the school from the DfE, due to it being graded inadequate, which means that we can open it as a new school on September 1, as Cowley Academy, with a new identity.

“It will be a great school, there are some fantastic students who deserve a better deal than they have been given since the last inspection.

“I am confident we will improve the school, the SLAT team and I have the capacity, ambition, drive, vision and determination to do this.”