THE headteacher of Knox Academy has told concerned councillors that education inspectors would find “significant improvements” at the Haddington school if they visited now.
READ MORE: Knox Academy 'needs to revisit its vision and values', say inspectors
Headteacher Sarah Ingham (pictured below) told East Lothian Council’s education committee that the issues highlighted were around policies and procedures rather than whether or not the school was meeting the needs of children.
She said: “I think if the inspectors came back in, after just four months, they would see significant improvements. There have been many changes in a short period of time.”
The Education Scotland report identified strengths at the school, such as Ms Ingham’s engagement with partners in the local community and the wide-ranging S4-S6 curriculum.
It rated the school’s ‘raising attainment and achievement’ standard as ‘good’, its ‘leadership of change’ and ‘learning, teaching and assessment’ as ‘satisfactory’, but found its ‘ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion’ was ‘weak’.
After presenting a report to the committee on the inspection, Ms Ingham came under fire from Councillor Stuart Currie for not addressing the concerns raised.
He said: “I am concerned that there is little or no comment on this grading of ‘weak’.”
The headteacher said that when she and staff had carried out a self-assessment of their performance they rated themselves in the same category as satisfactory and she insisted the concerns raised by education inspectors were more about following their policies, pointing out that 95 per cent of pupils were leaving for ‘positive destinations’ – above the national average.
She said: “The inspectors agreed we were meeting the needs of our pupils. There were some basic things we had missed but they were easily fixable.”
Among measures taken following the report was the addition of an extra depute head, Yvonne Binks, who has been seconded to the school from Preston Lodge High School.
Fiona Robertson, head of education at East Lothian Council, said that the local authority had been working with the school.
She said: “It is mainly about the processes and to ensure that all young people’s needs were being met and that they had a voice.
“The school has made great strides in improving the policies and processes and we are continuing to work with them.”
Councillor Willie Innes, council leader, said he had been “shocked and disappointed” when he read the report. He said: “But I would not want this report to hide the fact Knox Academy performs well and is meeting the needs of the children.
“Parents are more concerned about performance. It is what is happening to their children, not the paperwork in the background that matters.
“I welcome the fact the head of education has quickly moved to take action in addressing the inspectors’ report and I look forward to seeing that additional support working.”
Education inspectors who visited the school are expected to carry out a follow-up inspection later this year.
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