Bayford Church of England
Ofsted inspection report 2019
Voluntary Controlled Primary School
continues to be a good school.
What is Ofsted?
‘Ofsted’ is the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills. It is an independent and impartial government department which inspects services providing education and skills for learners of all ages. Ofsted also inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.
Ofsted’s role is to make sure that organisations providing education, training and care services in England do so to a high standard for children and students.
In practical terms, for schools this is done mainly through regular inspection visits. After a visit by an Ofsted inspector a report is published which highlights the school’s current strengths and also draws attention to areas of school life which could be developed. The report is intended to help the school improve, and even the best schools can always move forwards and develop what they offer.
Understanding reports
The published report uses a 4-point grading scale in all inspections to make the principal judgements about each school:
- grade 1 – outstanding
- grade 2 – good
- grade 3 – requires improvement
- grade 4 – inadequate
A school is always given an overall grade, but inspectors may also use the same scale to make graded judgements on the following specific areas of school life:
- quality of education
- behaviour and attitudes
- personal development
- leadership and management
You can learn more about the inspection and reporting process from the Education Inspection Framework document, and from the School Inspection Handbook, both of which are regularly updated.
The length and detail of the published report will vary according to what kind of inspection the school has had. There are two basic kinds of inspection, known as section 5 and section 8 inspections (from sections of the Education Act 2005). Broadly, a section 5 inspection is a full inspection, and a section 8 inspection is a shorter, less detailed inspection which cannot change the overall grade given to the school.
Usually, a section 8 inspection of a good or outstanding school will be followed by a further section 8 inspection after approximately a 4-year interval. However, if there is evidence that a good school has improved towards outstanding or may no longer be good, or that an outstanding school may no longer be outstanding, inspectors will specify that the next inspection is a section 5 inspection, with the full range of graded judgements available.
Our most recent report
Our most recent inspection and report was carried out in October 2019. This was the first section 8 inspection since Ofsted judged the school to be good in February 2016. We would usually expect that the next inspection might take place in 2023, but the Covid pandemic has disrupted the normal Ofsted cycle and it is always possible for changes in the school to trigger an alternative arrangement.
You can download a copy of the most recent report from this site, or go directly to our page on the Ofsted site (where you can see all our previous reports too), by using the buttons below.
Ofsted Parent View
When a school is inspected parents are invited to share their views about the school with Ofsted. But you don’t have to wait until the inspectors come to let Ofsted know what you think about our school. Ofsted Parent View gives you the chance to tell Ofsted what you think at any time.
Broadly, Parent View is an online survey tool or questionnaire which can be completed at any time. Ofsted will use the information shared with them to help decide when to inspect a school and what to discuss with the school when an inspection happens.
You can register with Parent View and give Ofsted your opinion by using the icon link below.
You can also look at anonymised response data from parents at our school via the Parent View site, but responses are only published for a given year when sufficient responses have been made to make the data meaningful. For Bayford that means that at the moment you cannot see data more recent than at the time of the 2019 inspection.
This page was last updated on 7th March 2022