Thetford Academy Principal Michael Fordham shares the results of the school’s latest inspection in this month’s Beyond the School Newsletter.
“Every headteacher will know the feeling of waiting for the inspectors to call, and at our school we have been waiting for that call for a long time, having last been inspected by Ofsted in 2020, just two weeks before the first COVID lockdown began. In the end, we got the call to tell us the school would be inspected on 1st April – no joke, they hastened to add.
The inspection went very well. Readers of the education news will know that Ofsted is changing how it inspects schools next year, but the inspection we had was the old sort which does not give grades to the school, but instead provides us with a report on how the school has improved since the last inspection.
And I am pleased to say that the school came through with flying colours. Our school has had significant academic successes recently, and in subjects like maths, sciences and languages we have for some years been in the top 20% of schools nationally. But since the pandemic we have invested very heavily in wider school life, and our extra-curricular provision and work on pupil personal development which picked out by inspectors as being unusually strong.
Thetford is the fourth largest settlement in Norfolk and we are the only state secondary school in town, and so it is important that we are the school that the town deserves. There is a lot of work that we will keep doing to make our school better, but it is a great credit to the students and staff of our school that the school received a positive inspection report, and we are already excited about where we go next. To read the school’s Ofsted report, click the link below.”
Michael Fordham
Promoted content – Please mention the About Thetford website when responding to advertisements
