E. Maltby
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Inspection ReportSo at last the report is published. Thank goodness the school is no longer seen as underachieving - no doubt thanks in great part to the local authority. I would be more comforted had the head and staff achieved this themselves.
Marton is now a 'satisfactory' school after nearly 3 years of Mrs Coupe as headteacher. How many more years, how much money, and how many more staff changes will it take to raise the school standard to the 'good' of the first 2 Ofsted reports - but at least for the moment it seems to be moving in the right direction which is what everyone has wanted. Thankfully the personal development of the children has remained as the 'good' it has always been - so important in today's world.
Here are the main findings:
Overall effectiveness of the school
Grade: 3
The overall effectiveness of the school is satisfactory.
Achievement and standards
Grade: 3
Achievement is satisfactory, and standards reached by pupils are broadly average
Personal development and well-being
Grade: 2
Personal development and well-being is good, as is the pupils’ spiritual, moral social and cultural development.
Quality of provision
Teaching and learning
Grade: 3
Pupils make satisfactory progress overall, and show good attitudes towards their work.
Curriculum and other activities
Grade: 3
The curriculum is satisfactory overall, with some good features.
Care, guidance and support
Grade: 3
Care, guidance and support are satisfactory
Leadership and management
Grade: 3
The school considers leadership and management to be satisfactory and the inspectors agree
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WAYNE HEYS
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Please forgive me for not jumping through hoops, but SATISFACTORY, come on, lets get real here, yes its going in the right direction, but when I was at school if your yearly report had satisfactory on it, then you were not exactly going to get that wonderful present you were promised off your parents now were you.
As most of you know my interest lies heavily within football, so bear with me,
Image a team called Progress FC, they had performed well up until the past couple of seasons, then a new manager comes in, you with me so far ?
The team make a bad start to the season so the manager then suspends one of his main players, one who made the team tick (along with others) another team player picks up a long term injury, and misses the rest of the season, then 10 months later, the same two players are allowed to leave, some would suggest that they have their contract paid up, one takes retirement, one transfers to another team, The supporters start to get very restless as performances begin to drop, they start to ask questions of the Manager and the Chairman and also the owner of the club.
Unfortunately information given is kept to an absolute minimum, and the chairman puts out messages in the press which the supporters know is complete drival, no-one knows why the two players were allowed to leave, the fans are up in arms, suddenly, one of the players within the club promote photographs of themselves which include some of the youngsters from the junior supporters club ,which certainly do not reflect well of the squad.
The owner tries to fob off any-one who dares to ask questions as he has backed the manager all the way, the manager refuses to speak to the press, but the chairman will gladly circulate leaflets attacking the clubs own supporters who have backed the team over many seasons to a stronger league position.
Suddenly , players start asking for transfers, one leaves with no other club to go to !!
The flood gates open and with two years most of the squad have gone to ply their trade elsewhere.The supporters who have now got very vocal on the local radio phone in, are getting the blame off the owner and chairman for the falling attendances and in no way has it anything to do with below par performances on the pitch, but dont panic, Progress F.C. have their own Roman Abromovitch, who will pump in the cash to try and ensure the team do not get relelgated. The benefactor will pump in huge amounts of money to keep things ticking over , whilst the owner threatens the supporters with LEGAL ACTION ,for raising concerns about the club they have supported for many years !!
Now most teams who do not win as many as they lose or have to sell their players or are taken over by another sugar daddy usually do they same thing, THEY SACK THE MANAGEMENT TEAM and bring in someone with past experience who can take the club forward, someone who the supporters have confidence in and will improve performance back to the good old days of pre 2004.
It is usual then for a manager who has just been sacked to go to the press with information which may in turn damaged the reputation of some of the players to whom he had issues with at his previous club, personal information to which only the club staff may have been aware of, he would certainly not write to the press suggesting that one of his star players should never kick a ball again, would he ?
So finally what do the poor supporters do,with attendance figures now at an all time low, do they withdraw the support and go and follow another side, or do they stand and challenge the many wrongs that have been done to their beloved team.
Well, if its my team then I stand up and be counted, I could be talking about Burnley West Ham and Aston Villa but no, another team which wear the Claret and Blue, so finally it begs they question if your team was labelled SATISFACTORY, would you be really happy , no, me neither.
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Alan Veale
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Thanks for that, Wayne! That explains why they call them “League Tables”…?
My only comment on this one (for now) is that I feel it is a welcome piece of news that the school appears to be moving back in the right direction. What worries me is the enormous financial cost that has been required to put the school back to this position, whether that level can be sustained in the future, and whether this effort is justified when looking at the other schools in the Blackpool area who did NOT receive the same kind of assistance from the LEA.
Why should Marton have been given such special treatment?
I may have a few more answers after this weekend, and I WILL have a lot more to say about recent events:
Someone has been caught with their knickers down…
Alan Veale
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savemarton
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Forgive me if I'm wrong but didn't the penultimate OFSTED report categorise the leadership of the school as 'good'? Remember this was the inspection that was fundamentally flawed for many reasons which have already been reported on this website. So now when we have a little more faith in the report being more accurate the leadership has gone down? Mmm - me smells a rat!! Only satisfactory when so many employees of the CSA at Blackpool council are working so many hours to help Marton!! Ridiculous. Is this what we're paying our council tax for?
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R. Thornton
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ReportBrilliant Wayne !!! What you said is exactly right but I can't see that happening at Marton. Some managers do have the Chairman in their pocket - especially when the Chairman knows little about the 'game'
But I have a TRUE story for you which matches perfectly one of the statements in the report.
I quote from the report.
"The statistical analysis suggesting unsatisfactory progress by the end of Key Stage 2 is not borne out by inspection evidence, or by the local authority’s monitoring of the school, or the school’s own monitoring."
What an amazing comment - nothing in the report to back it up, just that statement. So where does that leave parents ? Which statistics? - do they mean SATs, because English and Science were certainly poor - Science in particular way below the National average. Maths only just reached the level of 2004. Or does it refer to the Value Added statistics where the evidence, which the Ofsted team apparently could not see, shows Marton to be one of the poorest in Blackpool ?
Anyway, my parallel story. A couple of months ago I was in a taxi going to the airport for a holiday. The car began to slow and eventually came to a stop on the hard shoulder. Immediately the driver was very apologetic, insisting that he checked the car regularly - monitoring fuel, oil etc etc. Not only that the company regularly serviced the car, made repairs and monitored its condition. He could find nothing wrong under the bonnet, and kept telling me there wasn't much wrong. Still, there we were not moving - certainly 'making unsatisfactory progress'.
The AA took their time arriving, and I became angrier that I was still stuck but eventually they did and carried out a thorough inspection. Guess what - the mechanic could find 'no evidence of a fault'. "I can see nothing wrong, there seems to be nothing to fix" he said. The taxi - despite the assurances of the driver, the company and the AA, was going nowhere.
The solution I was told, "If you're not satisfied, get yourself another taxi!"
Quite amazing that what goes on at Marton would be just unbelievable and unnacceptable in other walks of life.
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Giselle Rosseau
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hello R.Thornton,
Your analogy is poetic ! As I experience more and more on a daily basis at theschooli am dumbfounded by theblantency of the whole deal. i have been issued a letter from a junior in the legal and democratic debpt of our illustrious council.
my son has been left to sit in his own manure for slightlyless than 6 hours. I try to bring this to schools attention( not that I should have had too). No ownership has yet been taken by the school or should i say by a certain person. Yet bullits fired in my direction. How dare they fail in duty of careand then have the bl***y cheek to attempt to shoot the messenger.
To expand on this my own experience is one thing but this also gives a window into the oppression i believe the less co-operative children experience. is this government insentives or council or even worse personalchoicesofheadteachers.
I have read theother post about the runaround that the action group have experienced. I could have told you that weeks ago. My boldness may not make me too popular but it cuts out a lot of the farce which intended to exhaust and discourage any who question . large or small the complaints are delt with in the same manner andlevel ofdistain.
blasting the council in this area is to me the only way out of the current enviromentin Blackpool, in my opinion!. Its not just education its accross the board.I spoke with the lady standing for *** Irene- she repeated somthing that I had already been awareof. Some months ago councilors were booking themselves into the Hilton hotel for meetings. it was to include overniifght accomadation ,paid for by Blackpool folk. I have absolute faith in thislady but am notso assured about the agenda *************. How far down does Blackpool have to get before those that care take action.
*****This post has been edited by the Administrator removing political references*****
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admin
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Political ReferencesI have edited the above post (apologies Giselle).
Whilst general political comments are welcomed on this site I think it is prudent to stay away from directing comments, either for or against, towards specific Political Parties.
I have always found that staying away from politics and religion are very wise when debating important matters.
Thank you.
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