Swindon Schools are Failing Children says Ofsted in Blunt new Letter to Everyone

It’s not good news for Swindon schools this morning, as Ofsted flags up serious concern across the board.

Ofsted Regional Director for the South West Bradley Simmons is calling on all headteachers, governors and chief executives of multi-academy trusts to ensure that children in Swindon are getting the best possible education.

“Pupils in Swindon are being failed at every level. Primary school performance which had previously shown a positive trend of improvement in Swindon, is now a concern,” Simmons says.

“Recent inspections of five secondary schools in the town also indicate a trend of decline with only one of these schools being rated good. Of the others, one went from good to requires improvement, one failed to improve from requires improvement and two went from requires improvement to inadequate.

“If Swindon’s pupils are to have the skills and qualifications required to improve their life chances everyone with a responsibility for education needs to take immediate action.”

Three times the regional director has raised concerns to Swindon Borough Council, but the 2016 phonics testing revealed that only 75 per cent of six year olds met the expected standard.

In a letter addressed to everyone who has managerial input at Swindon schools, Simmons writes: ‘I am, therefore, widening the audience of this letter so that no key player in Swindon’s schools can be in any doubt of the seriousness of the situation.In short, in 2016, Swindon’s children were failed by its schools at every key stage.’

The standard of reading at Swindon schools is also poor at age 7 years and just 44 per cent of 11 year olds managed to meet the new expected standard in reading, writing and maths at key stage 2.