LETTERS – Ofsted report comments

I have seen online that our school’s Ofsted report has been reported on by your newspaper.

I appreciate that newspapers need to and should report on schools Ofsted inspections but am disappointed that a school’s response to their inspection has not been given the same level of importance.

Also, there is a factual error in that children at primary age work towards attainment in Key Stage Two not Key Stage Three.

I am happy that there was some mention of strengths identified from the inspection, but disappointed that personal development and wellbeing meeting the strong standard was, I feel, overlooked, or that the other areas reported on had met the expected standard.

Data from Ofsted in May 2026 shows that only 32 per cent of all schools inspected (secondary and primary combined) achieved a strong standard in Behaviour and Attendance and 40 per cent achieved the strong standard in Personal Development and Wellbeing – there is no current breakdown of how many within these percentages are specifically primary schools inspected, this data shows how well we have achieved in these areas yet not highlighted.

It would have been beneficial I think if where you have written, but achievement needs attention as the children do not achieve as well as they should had been supported with the contextual factors our school has rather than a stand-alone sentence. I do not dispute our data was below national figures last year but would have hoped that this sentence could have been more linked to the contextualised factors faced by small school in particular, where for us one child represented 8.3 per cent of our cohort compared to an average class of 30 children where one child represents 3.3 per cent.

I appreciate that you may have been restricted with word count and editing and this may have resulted in your article reading to me the way it does.

Lisa Sexton, headteacher, Moulton Chapel Primary School.

Note from the editor:

We always strive to be fair when reporting Ofsted inspections.

Within the limited space available, our report covered the key areas and the size of school was highlighted so readers could see the small number in context.

Behaviour, attendance, personal development and wellbeing were all described in positive terms along with the ‘warm and nurturing’ environment.

Space doesn’t permit us to include detail of each point raised and the context in which it is made.

The report itself is published and readers can see the full details for themselves.