Dear Parents and Friends of XP East
Please find attached the Ofsted report for XP East school that took place on October 12 and 13 in 2021.
You will probably be wondering why the report has taken so long to be published and that is because we were compelled to complain to Ofsted about the judgement regarding the overall effectiveness of the school and the conduct of the inspection team.
As you will see when you read the report we achieved a ‘good’ judgement for the quality of education. We strongly disagree with the ‘good’ judgement as we are confident that our curriculum and implementation is world class.
In addition, we were given a ‘good’ judgement for behaviour and attitudes. Once again, we strongly disagree with this judgement as our students respectfully and amazingly express who they are every day.
The school was judged as ‘outstanding’ for personal development and safeguarding was judged as effective.
Indeed, comments in the report are very positive, even though we were disappointed by the ‘good’ judgements. Inspectors did not seem able to grasp fully what we do in terms of our curriculum model or recognise the impact that the high quality work our students produce has on their character growth and academic success.
The judgement for sixth form is ‘requires improvement’. This was based on the fact that our quality assurance of external provision has not been robust enough and that we need to improve this aspect of our work. Within 24 hours of the inspection, we identified the risks and mitigated the issues raised regarding the quality assurance of our external Post 16 provision to put things right.
This in no way reflects the excellent external provision in place at both Harrison College and Higher Rhythm, who provide amazing provision for some of the most vulnerable students in Doncaster.
There were no issues with our in-school Post 16 provision.
Nevertheless, this judgement has then led the inspection team to judge our leadership and management and overall effectiveness as ‘requires improvement’. We consider this to be disproportionate and it is contradictory to the other judgements and general comments in the report.
Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, Ofsted did not uphold our complaints regarding the above, the unprofessional conduct of the team and their conflicts of interest.
Regardless of Ofsted’s view, we know XP East is a fantastic school that provides world class provision. The school is not defined by Ofsted but by the work we do, with our students, parents and wider community on a daily basis. Our students produce beautiful and important work that impacts positively on the community, develops their character and sense of social justice whilst allowing them to succeed academically. Hundreds of visitors from around the world who come to see our school as a model of excellence agree with that analysis.
We would like to thank you for your ongoing support of the school and the noble work that we are engaged in and that we deliver every day. We are not deterred from our mission to enable our young people to make the world a better place and we will continue to focus on this in the future.
With my very best wishes, as always.
Andy Sprakes
Chief Academic Officer
XP School Trust.
XP East Ofsted Report
