To view the March 2011 Ofsted report, please click here.

Plume’s Ofsted success – Report published today! – Plume judged as a good school with outstanding community cohesion

On 2-3 March, 6 inspectors visited Plume, spending a considerable amount of time observing lessons, talking to students and staff and analysing parental questionnaires.  I am delighted with the report that celebrates our many successes and confirms what we need to do to improve even more.  This success is down to the hard work of our students, the commitment and talent of our staff and the positive support of parents & carers.

The way schools have been inspected since 2009 makes it much more difficult to be judged as ‘good’ than in the past.  To achieve this high grading, inspectors judged that our students achieve significantly more than would be expected.  It is very rewarding to see that we did even better than in our last inspection in 2007.  We achieved an ‘outstanding’ judgement for the promotion of community cohesion, making us one of the best schools in Essex for this.

Some extracts from the report:

‘The Plume School is a good school and it has good capacity to improve further’

‘Most students make good progress as a result of good teaching and learning, good support and an interesting range of subjects and courses which meet their needs’

‘The promotion of community cohesion is outstanding’

 ‘Students say they feel very safe’

‘Most parents and carers are highly supportive of the school with a very high level of satisfaction with their children’s enjoyment of school and being kept safe’

 ‘the large majority of students enjoy school and most say they learn a lot in lessons and are well supported by staff’

 ‘more vulnerable students are monitored and supported very well’

‘High quality and successful partnerships exist with local further education colleges and training providers to ensure a broad curriculum’

The Inspectors agreed that for Plume to improve further we would focus on continuing to raise attainment, develop whole-school assessment and continue to develop the positive impact of the new College structure.

‘Through a wide range of activities, students make a good contribution to the community’

‘They (students) behave well in most lessons and around the school.  They are mostly polite and confident, and work very effectively together in lessons’

‘..the headteacher and leadership team are focused clearly on improving students’ attainment and ensuring that lessons are of a consistently good quality to ensure students make the progress of which they are capable’

‘Teaching and learning are good in the Sixth Form.  Students have access to a wide range of subjects and courses at advanced level’

 ‘The large majority of lessons seen by inspectors were good’

‘assessment practices across the school are good’