The Prescot School, a secondary school in the borough, has been rated ‘Requires improvement’ by Ofsted for its overall effectiveness — grade 3 on the inspectorate’s four-point scale.
Ofsted — the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills — is the statutory inspectorate for schools in England. Its judgements are independent of the council and of the school, and they sit on a scale running from ‘Outstanding’ (grade 1) and ‘Good’ (grade 2) through ‘Requires improvement’ (grade 3) to ‘Inadequate’ (grade 4).
A grade of ‘Requires improvement’ means a school is not yet good but is not failing. It is the inspectorate’s signal that some aspects of the school — which can include the quality of teaching, pupils’ progress, behaviour or leadership — need to get better, while others may already be sound. The detail of what an inspection found, and the specific areas flagged for improvement, are set out in the published report rather than the headline grade.
Schools rated ‘Requires improvement’ are re-inspected by Ofsted, normally within a set period, so that progress against the findings can be checked. A single grade is a snapshot of one inspection, not a permanent label.
Parents and residents can read the inspectors’ findings in full in the Ofsted report for The Prescot School.
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