Four out of five Brighton and Hove schools rated good or outstanding

Four out of five state schools in Brighton and Hove have been rated as good or outstanding by the government’s official watchdog.

Most recently, Ofsted, the school inspector, published reports about ten schools and nurseries in the area in the autumn term.

Hangleton Infant School, St Luke’s Primary School, West Hove Infant School and Tarnerland Nursery all retained their outstanding grade.

Hilary Ferries, head of standards and achievement at Brighton and Hove City Council, said yesterday (Monday 13 January) that this was particularly impressive in the case of Hangleton Infant School.

This was because the executive head Emma Lake had been providing support at Benfield Primary School in Portslade.

She told the Brighton and Hove City Council Children and Young People Committee that Benfield had since come out of special measures after being graded as inadequate by Ofsted a year ago.

The committee was told that the Cedar Centre had gone from requiring improvement to good. Patcham House had gone from being outstanding to good. And the first inspection of the Brighton and Hove Pupil Referral Unit had graded it as good.

The four grades given by Ofsted are outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate.

Patcham Junior School had slipped from good to inadequate, the committee was told, but Janis Taylor, head of West Hove Junior School would be providing support to address serious weaknesses there.

Parents of pupils at Patcham Junior and prospective parents have called a public meeting this evening (Tuesday 14 January).

The committee was told: “Patcham Junior was inspected in December. It was judged inadequate with serious weaknesses.

“The local authority is putting in support that includes linking with West Hove Junior School for leadership and support for the quality of teaching.”

The school will become part of the Achievement for All Programme to support the teaching and learning of pupils with special educational needs (SEN).

The new tougher Ofsted regime is focusing on the progress made by the most disadvantaged pupils.

The two secondary schools inspected during the autumn term were Longhill and Dorothy Stringer.

Stringer, previously outstanding, was graded good while Longhill slipped from good to requires improvement.

The head, Haydn Stride, appealed against the inspectors’ verdict but his appeal was rejected.

Inspectors are due back at the school in Rottingdean today.

Yesterday inspectors returned to West Blatchington Primary School which was deemed to require improvement almost a year ago.

They were impressed with the progress being made by the school under head Rachel Simmonds who is being supported by Derek Trimmer, the head of Hove Park School.