Parents will, I’m sure, be as delighted as we all are, that the Ofsted ‘monitoring visit’ which took place on Tuesday and Wednesday last week, confirmed that Elliott is making satisfactory progress. Although there is still a way to go, the Ofsted team was impressed with:

• ·         the 2009 examination results;

• ·        the new systems that are in place;

• ·        the confident optimism and good morale of the staff;

• ·        students’ behaviour and attitude in class;

• ·        very good practice in some lessons (English came out very well – well done, English!);

• ·        the promising start to a new Year 7 curriculum, focusing on literacy;

The Lead Inspector, Meena Woods, HMI, said that she realised that the new governing body (the IEB) and the interim Headteacher have only been in place since June, but the work already done gives her confidence that we will continue to make good progress.

There’s no room for complacency, however!  There will be another monitoring visit in January, and between now and then we have to work hard to put right the things that still need improvement.   In particular, we have to work to ensure that teaching and learning is consistently good across the curriculum, and that’s what all leaders – the Senior Leadership Team and all the Middle Leaders will be taking on immediately and developing over the term.

In the meantime, I am sure you will join us in feeling very pleased that the staff’s and students’ hard work over the past months has been recognised and rewarded. 

We move onwards and upwards – definitely!