Cavendish Primary School rated inadequate by Ofsted, amid constant turnover of staff and leadership over last 18 months

A constant turnover of staff and leadership has contributed to a school’s decline, according to inspectors, who say that ‘many parents have lost confidence’ in its ability to improve.

Cavendish Primary School received a grading of inadequate in its latest Ofsted report published on Monday – just 18 months after being rated as good by the regulator.

The report stated that the quality of education, personal development and early years provision had all decline, stemming from changes in leadership that prevented issues from being addressed.

Inspectors found that the ongoing staff churn meant some pupils had six different teachers in just two years, and many Year 6 pupils struggled to learn and did not feel ready for secondary school.

“An increasing number of parents are very concerned about a range of issues,” the report reads. “These include staff turnover, leadership communication and the experiences of their children.

“Many parents have lost confidence in the school to address the issues they raise.

“In the last 18 months, there has been near constant staffing and leadership change.

“There is not an appropriate action plan or sufficient leadership capacity to address the urgent priorities.

“There has not been an effective enough approach between the governing body, the school, the local authority, and the diocese to work collectively to address urgent weaknesses in a timely or sustained way.”

Ofsted reserved praise for individual staff, describing them as “caring, kind and trying their best” – but also determined that some staff felt they did not have sufficient support.

As a consequence, inspectors concluded, staff were not well trained to deliver the curriculum or identify gaps in pupils’ knowledge, leading to poor outcomes.

However, they did credit senior leaders who are new to their roles for “working tenaciously to try and address the issues”.

“Since the previous inspection, there has been a range of external support commissioned to support the school,” the report added.

“However, despite this, the support has been fragmented in its approach. It has not provided sufficient capacity to address the wide-ranging issues.

“There has been significant change in governance since the previous inspection. The constant turnover of governors means that those who are left are stretched thin to cover the wealth of information they need to know.”