West Lancs schools delight at Ofsted success amid claims Lancashire is being targeted for inspections as a result of academy drive

Nov 15 2012 by Rob Pattinson, Ormskirk Advertiser

THREE schools in West Lancs were celebrating after being graded ‘good’ by Ofsted in an “unprecedented” wave of inspections.

The National Union of Teachers claimed Lancashire was being targeted for an increased number of inspections because of the lack of academies in the county.

The claims come after 13 secondary schools across the county were inspected in the last two months.

The majority of schools inspected were those in the ‘satisfactory’ bracket.

A letter from Lancashire Council's advisory service sent to head teachers in the borough had reported an “unprecedented number of secondary school inspections taking place over the last two months”.

And the NUT believes it was part of a government drive to push ahead with forced academy conversions in schools found to be underperforming.

But of the 12 schools inspected since September previously judged satisfactory in Lancashire, nine have been judged good. Ormskirk School, Burscough Priory and Lathom Park Primary were among those improving from satisfactory to good in recent inspections.

Ormskirk School head John Doyle said: “I have thought that Ormskirk School has been a good school for a while now, and it is satisfying that this has been recognised.

“We are determined that our progress will not be halted. “Our students deserve to have an outstanding experience during their time at secondary school, and it is my belief that we are already providing that in some areas.”

A statement on Priory’s website said Ofsted had: “identified the excellent progress the school has made and our aspirations for outstanding as we work together to provide our students with every opportunity to develop holistically and not solely academically.”

In Ofsted’s report of the inspection at Lathom Park, it stated that: “pupils achieve well. This is an improvement on the findings of the previous inspection”.

A spokesman for the NUT, which is campaigning against moves to create more academies in the county, said the inspections were: “failing to find reasons to force our schools to become academies”.

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said that the latest Ofsted inspections have shown Lancashire schools to be in good health and improving.