OFSTED remote visit to Egerton High School, December 2020

Dear Mr Madden

Ofsted remote visit to Egerton High School

Following my remote visit with Will Smith, Her Majesty’s Inspector (HMI), to your school on 2 December 2020, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to confirm the visit’s findings. Thank you for the time you made available to discuss your actions since September 2020, when the government expected all schools to open fully to all pupils.

This visit was conducted under section 8 of the Education Act 2005 (as amended) and in accordance with Ofsted’s published procedures for visiting schools while routine inspections are temporarily suspended.

Ofsted’s visits to schools during the autumn term are not inspections. We are not giving graded judgements. We did not undertake the usual range of inspection activities and were unable to check other sources of evidence, such as visits to lessons or looking at pupils’ work. The content of this letter gives an overview of our discussions about what has happened in your school this term.

During the visit, we spoke to you, members of the senior leadership team and the leader responsible for safeguarding. We did not speak to pupils.

Context

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills is leading Ofsted’s work into how England’s education system is managing the return to full education for pupils, following an extended break in formal schooling due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. 2 In undertaking this focused work, HMI are visiting a broad range of schools. HMI will visit a sample of:
◼ approximately 1,200 schools across all Ofsted grades (outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate)
◼ maintained schools, academies and free schools, special schools and centres of alternative provision, including those in cities, and coastal, town or rural communities.

The information from this visit will feed into Ofsted’s national reporting so that the insights can be shared with the government and the education sector. We did not find any significant concerns during the visit. In such a case, an inspection report would be published on our website and available to parents and carers.

We did not consider your response to COVID-19 during the spring and summer terms 2020, when the school was not open to all pupils. From this visit, inspectors noted that:
◼ Since September 2020, almost all the pupils in the school have had to work from home for short periods of time.
◼ You told us that teachers are delivering all of the subjects in the school’s usual curriculum. You explained that teachers have adapted their curriculum plans to include any learning that was not taught in the spring and summer terms. You told us that you plan to be delivering the school’s normal curriculum content by the summer term 2021.
◼ Pupils in Years 10 and 11 continue to study all their examination subjects.
◼ Teachers have identified that many pupils are struggling to re-engage with reading. Leaders have purchased new resources to reignite pupils’ love of reading for pleasure. Teachers are providing additional reading lessons for pupils in Years 7 and 8.
◼ Teachers are checking on pupils’ new starting points in mathematics. They are using this information to help pupils to catch up with learning that they have missed or that has been forgotten since March 2020. For example, pupils are learning about the application of mathematical calculations when working out the area of a two-dimensional shape.
◼ You told us that teachers provide a range of paper-based resources for pupils’ remote education. The daily timetable for pupils who are self-isolating includes individualised work for mathematics and English as well as work in other curriculum subjects. You explained that pupils’ work is aligned with the work that they would be completing if they were in school. 3
◼ Staff provide support for parents on how to keep their children safe when they are working remotely. Teachers provide feedback to pupils once their work is submitted.

Thank you again for contributing to this important national work. The views and experiences you have shared will help to inform future policy.

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Trafford. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

Yours sincerely

Amanda Stringer
Her Majesty’s Inspector