Two-year deadline for failing school

The school is controlled by Blackburn with Darwen education authority -- singled out by the government for Beacon Status in 1999 as a centre of excellence.

So how can a Beacon authority let a school fail and what will it be like living with the stigma of special measures? CLARE COOK reports.

BLACKBURN with Darwen Council won Beacon Status in 1999 after running the borough's schools as an independent education authority for just 18 months.

The Local Education Authority was given the vote of confidence after pulling seven schools up from their "failing" status and turning around standards that were generally so low they were among the worst in the country.

But four years after the area was named a centre of excellence, giving help advice to other authorities, Darwen Moorland High School has been put into special measures.

Standards, behaviour, attitudes, leadership, management were all found to be "unsatisfactory" by the November Ofsted inspectors. The report said the governors and teachers had suffered a severe staffing difficulty which had left the senior management team "beleaguered and battered".

The school was one of 30 nationally to be put under special measures in the Autumn term last year.

Now headteacher since May 1990, Richard Bridges, who has been given a confidence vote from many parents and the National Union of Teachers, has two years to turn things around.

He is in the process of developing an action plan in liaison with the LEA and they in turn with the Department for Education and Skills. The details of the plan are subject to discussion and will be finalised later this term, but the school faces closure if standards do not improve. Mr Bridges insists the school is on the right track and that "the only way is up". But how has the school been allowed to get into this situation?

Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Paul Browne accused the council of a cover-up.

"This authority is very good at bragging - but they never tell the real truth," he said. "Now it has blown up in their faces. The education chiefs knew about Darwen Moorland and all its problems and should have done something about it. They needed to be one step ahead.

"I don't understand how an authority can be classed as a beacon of excellence when they have a failing school."

That's a question on many people's lips - especially given that Darwen Moorland was one of three schools to share in a £300,000 initiative to draft in a number of specialist consultants to pull up grades at the school.

And that was on top of a team of school improvement officers being installed at the council with the sole purpose of 'improving schools'.

At the time in February last year, Ian Kendrick, assistant director of school improvement, said the investment would "drive improvement along faster". The consultants were meant to help motivate pupils and improve teaching over a two-year period.

The school was also part of the borough's Education Action Zone when it formed in 1999 - a Government initiative which allowed schools to access more funding to raise attainment and opportunities for youngsters. Yet academic results have slipped for the last four years from 30 per cent of pupils gaining five or more GCSE grades A*-C to 22 per cent.

Conservative education spokesperson Michael Law-Ryding demanded to know how the system could have fallen down so badly.

"Many parents will be very disappointed by this result and we need to ask how it has happened when so many teaching hours and resources have been put into the school," he said.

"It could be that they were badly targeted or insufficient. The process needs looking at so it never happens again. I urge the council to come out into the open and look at the real issues instead of sitting around patting each other on the back."

Simon Jones, national executive member for the National Union of Teachers, said: "Beacon Status is more about patting people on the back and self congratulating than doing much in schools. It has never really meant anything in terms of real changes in schools."

But at Town Hall the mood is one of defiance.

According to education director Peter Morgan the Beacon Status was primarily a confidence vote from the DfES for their track record at turning around primary level schools rather than secondary.

Moreover, he said the plan to draft in consultants at Darwen Moorland as part of the £300,000 initiative had "sown seeds of improvement" which are already showing in the Key Stage results.

Mr Morgan added: "Blackburn with Darwen LEA gained beacon status for school improvement around primary schools when we had a number in special measures and serious weaknesses. We have a track record of helping struggling schools turn around. Our rating as a three-star LEA is recognition of that and a mark of confidence from the DfES and others about our capacity to sustain improvement.

"However, that rating does not mean we do not have challenges. It is now up to us as an LEA to prove that this confidence is well founded by making sure that a rapid and effective intervention support strategy helps Darwen Moorland recover and prosper. The Ofsted judgement gives us more powers to direct matters and there will be intervention supported by expertise, consultancy and partnership working with other agencies, including the DfES.

"The school is not at crisis point and we are determined that progress will be rapid."

There is also evidence to suggest more schools have fallen pray to criticism since Ofsted inspection guidelines were tightened in September. There were nearly twice as many schools put into special measures in Autumn when Moorland was inspected compared to the year before - a fact the chief inspector David Bell says is "undoubtedly" linked to the new framework.

And as the measures were announced Mr Bridges said: "The number of schools being caught by this has massively increased under the new Ofsted framework."

Either way this Beacon authority has to prove itself once again and has a two-year deadline to do it.