Deciding which school is best for your children can be a tough decision for parents.
Schools across the country are regularly inspected by the education watchdog and are graded on a four-point scale. Although they aren’t inspected every year.
‘Outstanding’ is the top rating a school can receive, ‘good’ is second, ‘requires improvement’ the third and ‘inadequate’ is the worst. Teachers at schools across the country are currently taking part in strike action for better pay and funding for schools.
In England, the National Education Union is looking for a pay rise of 12% rather than the 5% offered so far by the government for most teachers. The unions say teachers’ pay has fallen by about 24% relative to inflation since 2010.
As mums and dads weigh up the different options, we have put together a list of the secondary schools in the city which were rated as ‘requiring improvement’ during their latest inspection, according to the Ofsted website.
Here are the 15 Birmingham secondary schools which ‘require improvement’ after an Ofsted inspection:
1. Holte School, Lozells
The Ofsted inspection in 2019 said: “This is a school that does many things very well indeed, but there are important areas where it needs to improve. A small number of pupils study away from the school. Leaders remove some of those in Year 11 from the school’s roll. They should not do this. This is the reason that leadership requires improvement.”
2. Ark St Alban’s Academy, Highgate
The latest Ofsted report in 2021 said: “At present, pupils who are part of the reading recovery programme do not study a modern foreign language. This is contributing to a declining number of pupils opting to study languages at key stage 4. In addition, current pupils in key stage 3 do not study computing. New leaders recognise that this needs to change, and have plans to address this.”
3. Orion School, Summerfield
The school’s 2021 inspection report said: “Pupils do not achieve as well academically as they do socially and personally. Aspects of the curriculum lack ambition and can sometimes limit pupils’ opportunities for academic success. Some subjects are not well planned or sequenced to help pupils build on what they already know. Leaders have plans to improve the curriculum. They know that there is more to do.”
4. Hopwood Hall School, Edgbaston
The school’s latest Ofsted report in 2021 said: “Teachers adapt the curriculum to address pupils’ needs. Teachers find out about pupils’ interests and hook them into learning through this. However, in some subjects, teachers pursue pupils’ interests, but stray too far from the curriculum plans. This means that pupils’ learning does not always build logically from what they already know.”