Ofsted and Performance Tables

Message from Emily Massey, CEO for The Partnership Trust:

In June 2023, Roundhill Primary School, part of The Partnership Trust, was visited by the schools’ inspectorate, Ofsted, for a full two-day inspection.   At that time, the school had faced a turbulent few years, with long term leadership absences and higher than usual staff turnover. However, a new headteacher Kirby Littlewood was appointed in September 2023 and, working in partnership with the Trust, has big plans for transforming the school.

The Ofsted report contained some real positives, and highlighted areas of practice of which we are all proud. In particular, the school was praised for the strong start given to all the children in the nursery, support for SEND pupils, effective safeguarding practices and how polite and respectful pupils at the school are. 

However, inspectors also rightly identified that the last few years have been extremely challenging for the school. While the school was graded as Requiring Improvement in majority of judgement areas, the school was graded as Inadequate overall.  While we had anticipated some of this feedback as part of our own evaluations of post-pandemic school life, I fully appreciate that this outcome does not match the high standards that our community should expect and that we demand.  The school appointed Kirby Littlewood as headteacher in September this year, having already completed an internal review on leadership and education.

We always knew that, given the recent history of the school, this inspection would present challenges, and there are some areas of feedback we want to be very open about.  Specifically, inspectors felt that implementing improvements at a faster pace was essential to getting the school back on track, particularly with regard to curriculum development and subject understanding, strategic planning and assessment processes.  As a Trust, we acknowledge that, with hindsight, we would have handled some things differently if we knew then, what we know now. However, we can only focus on what we can do from this point on, and have every confidence in Kirby Littlewood, our new fantastic Headteacher, as well as using the expertise from across the Trust to take the school forward. 

If you are looking for a school for your child, we would strongly encourage you to contact the school to meet with the headteacher or another member of the teaching team, to find out more about the school’s vision and ethos, to see the work that is going on at the school and hear about the opportunities and support available for pupils.