School 'extremely disappointed' with Ofsted grade

Bottisham Village College, which is part of Anglian Learning, has been rated 'Requires improvement'

A school is to appeal after it dropped from "outstanding" to "requires improvement" following an Ofsted inspection.

Bottisham Village College in Cambridgeshire in March was inspected in March - the first time it had been evaluated since 2012.

Since its previous grading, the college has undergone significant changes and expanded from 1,000 to 1,500 students.

Principal Jenny Rankine said she was "extremely disappointed", adding the report conflicted with other reviews and data showing students "continue to achieve and progress in line with or above the national average".

Inspectors said the quality of education, leadership and management, and behaviour and attitudes all required improvement.

They rated the pupils' personal development as "good".

Mrs Rankine said: “Given the significant changes to the school, the impact of the pandemic, and the changes to the Ofsted inspection framework, we did not expect to retain the 'outstanding' judgement.

"Our own assessments and other independent external reviews both indicated that the school was at least ‘good’ in all areas.

"Despite the overall judgement, the report confirmed that the school is already focusing on the right areas post-pandemic and praised the high expectations the school sets for pupils’ success."

In the report, inspectors said pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) did not always get the support they needed in class.

Other points for improvement included "more robust systems" to ensure consistency across the school when it came to bullying incidents.

Mrs Rankine added: "While we may disagree with the overall gradings, we had already identified the same areas for improvement and had already begun improving consistency, processes and introducing new systems in these areas.

"Now a further term has passed, we are confident that these areas have already improved...we will also be requesting a full re-inspection as soon as possible."

The Ofsted report said pupils performed well in examinations and developed an "impressive range of skills and attributes".

It added there were a wide range of popular clubs and trips and pupils felt comfortable expressing their individual identities.