Wix to become part of Belleville Post Reply

[LastMumStanding]

Belleville has just announced that it is to become the academy sponsor for Wix following Ofsted's grading of Wix as requiring "special measures". Exciting!

[Astolat]

Not sure 'exciting' is appropriate.

The ofsted reads as though some pretty serious safeguarding failings have come to light. It talks of extremism and failing to safeguard female pupils against female genital mutilation. I'm guessing this has something to do with the sudden leadership change over the summer but reads to me as though something seriously bad has happened.

I went to the tours and open mornings and they spoke very convincingly of how the previous ofsted was unfair, badly timed etc and big changes had been made. They also repeatedly intimated that the interim inspections had indicated a return to 'good' at the next full inspection.

Either they were lying to keep applications up or deluding themselves about how bad things were. If I had accepted a place there I would be pretty angry.

[LastMumStanding]

New Keeping Children Safe in Education requirement s came into effect in Sept 2016 and appear to have been the focus for a number of Ofsted inspections in the last couple of months. If a school does not have compelling answers and evidence on how it is protecting children against radicalisation, FGM and sexual exploitation then the assumption is that they cannot be doing it adequately. OFsted looks for a "culture of vigilance" and priority given to things like inducting new teachers, following up promptly on pupil absence etc. It might seem that Wix's leadership (before Belleville were asked to help - starting just days before the Ofsted!) had over-judged where they were at.

[LastMumStanding]

And I absolutely stand by my personal feeling of being excited about the prospect for the first time in years for Wix to become an outstanding school. I am always excited by improving standards that mean all pupils in the school can have a first class education. How is that inappropriate?

[Pud1]

It's important to clarify that the comments about radicalisation and FGM were about the staff not having the new, statutory training. It does not mean that there were issues to do with radicalisation within the school.

[Astolat]

That's good to know, I did read more into the report as it sounded so serious.

I still feel the overall report is very poor and a far cry from the suggestion that they were making great progress.

[Northcote12]

This is very good news indeed!! Here is hoping that the English part of the school improves as John Grove works his magic there as he did so successfully at Belleville (he has been at wix part time since september).

(The ofsted report is indeed scathing, the part about fgm though while sounding scary given the subjects touched upon seems to be mostly about lack of new procedure knowledge by staff rather than an actual problem.)

[LastMumStanding]

Belleville newsletter on their website announcing the news
http://www.belleville-school.org.uk/dow ... ent&id=172

[Northcote12]

Thank you for posting the link. This is particularly interesting:
"
For a number of years, Belleville has held the status of academy sponsor. As you are aware, Wix was recently graded as in ‘special measures’ by Ofsted and, as such, has to become an academy.
"
I believe the plans to have wix turned into an academy in a group with Belleville were existing pre ofsted, so a report mandating it comes just at the right time
Well, anyway, it is all very good news!!

[LastMumStanding]

Wix turned to Belleville in the summer term for some support to the Governors and Senior Leadership Team - hence why John Grove was there part time from September. Prior to this Belleville had started discussions with a number of schools in Wandsworth about forming a Multi-Academy Trust - these are still ongoing. Belleville getting the position of sponsor for Wix was not a foregone conclusion - they had to apply and be approved by the Regional Schools Commissioner and the Dept for Education who could easily have chosen one of the big chains. There's no conspiracy!

[firsttimerSW11]

Shows why you can only take Ofsted with a pinch of salt. I doubt very much Wix or many of the schools around the commons are in much danger of radicalisation and FGM. The fact that a teacher isn't trained in how to spot danger of radicalisation is hardly a reason to put it into special measures. As far as I'm concerned the standard of education being provided is by far the most important aspect of an ofsted report (and the only bit I personally read anyway). Of course, if the standards of education at Wix are poor then that is an entirely different matter. My children don't attend Wix so I can't really comment but even if they did, I'm not massively worried about my 4 year old being radicalised and heading off on the next flight to Syria.

[brihoney]

firsttimerSW11 - although I understand what you mean, that the ofsted is not criticising the teaching but the safeguarding issues, you put your point across in a way that makes you seem rather self centred. The role of schools is far more than just education and safeguarding is very important.

But if you want to reduce it to why it would mater to you/your child - think for one moment how devasting it might be if a little girl in your child's class, maybe their best friend, comes back from a holiday or absence having undergone FGM.

However much you might live in a middle classed between the commons bubble, I am happy to say that all wandsworth primary schools afaik have populations who might be at risk, and these children are bright enthusiatic members of my children's school. I personally have grown to love most of my children's friends and class mates, no matter their background, and would be personally very upset if any of them were at risk of abuse or similar and even more so if the school had missed opportunities to prevent it.

So yes, one might not need to worry that the teaching at Wix was wanting, but the tone of your comment really shocked me and I think reflected poorly on you.

[firsttimerSW11]

Understand your point, tone is a tricky one to decipher in a public forum. I suppose what I mean is that if I ran ofsted, I wouldn't make safeguarding a reason to put a school into special measures. Does this mean that if Honeywell for example didn't have the safeguarding training in place, it too would be placed in special measures, despite the excellent teaching, standards etc etc at that school? That seems counterintuitive. They should make a recommendation/insist that the school implements some training of course, I just wouldn't place a school in special measures on the back of it.
Disclaimer: I don't run/work for OFSTED

[cynic]

If you get rated 4 for Safeguarding, then your school gets rated a 4.
If for one moment you actually stop and think about all the categories of vulnerable children than can attend a state school, even temporarily, then you may consider Safeguarding is the first job of a school.

Incidentally there was no specific Safeguarding incident at all, as many have pointed out but the idea that it was simply all their systems and training where not completely up to date is also slightly misleading: At the Parents meeting at Wix last month to discuss the Ofsted the acting head indicated that one thing they were pulled-up on by Ofsted was they had no system in place to ensure any absences of At Risk children were queried i.e./ e.g. That those absences must be followed-up by a telephone call by noon.
IMHO that is a pretty big miss.

[Wix Governors]

Following the departure of Wix Primary school's last Headteacher at the end of August, Mr. John Grove, a national leader in education, agreed to Governors' request to become the school's Executive Head from September to drive the process of the school becoming part of a Multi Academy Trust with Belleville Primary School. Taking the school into an academy trust had been a strategy of Governors for some months. We are very grateful to Mr Grove and his team for the very high levels of commitment and support they have already given, and continue to give, to the school.

Within 5 days of Mr Grove's arrival at the school there was an OFSTED inspection. The report (recently published) graded the school as 4 principally due to a lack of up to date policy and procedures around safeguarding, rather than any incident or concern involving a child's safety at the school. Wix has taken the findings of the OFSTED report extremely seriously and have made appropriate changes to safeguarding procedures, policy and staff training.

Governors were surprised by the OFSTED report as the Governing Body has worked closely with the Local Authority since the 2014 OFSTED report. Over the past 18 months we have been consistently assured by the Local Authority's inspectors and Task Group that the school was securely 'good' in all respects, including safeguarding. The school has also achieved good results, with above average (often significantly so) and improved SAT scores in 2015 and 2016.

Following the OFSTED report, the transition of Wix to a Belleville led Multi Academy Trust will now be accelerated. Wix looks forward to stability of leadership as part of Belleville in addition to the clear benefits of being part of a larger organization (shared resources, shared teaching expertise etc) with an excellent record. Mr Grove and the Belleville team, together with Acting Head Ms Rebecca Osuntokun, look forward to bringing sustained, high quality education to Wix and to working closely with Ecole de Wix to embed and develop the strong relationship between the schools.

Please do contact the school if you have questions or indeed would like to visit the school.