Education watchdogs praise Burnley schools (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Education watchdogs praise Burnley schools

10:00pm Saturday 14th July 2012 in Earby

A HAT-trick of improvements in Burnley schools can now be celebrated after education watchdogs praised two more establishments.

Inspectors from Ofsted have decided that sufficient improvements have been made at Hameldon Community College to allay previous concerns about the Coal Clough Lane school.

And Blessed Trinity RC Community College is said to have made good progress after being placed in special measures in June 2011.

Earlier this week the Lancashire Telegraph reported how Unity College had been lauded for being placed in the top 10 per cent of improving schools, according to exam grades, in the country.

Speaking of Hameldon, inspector Shirley Gornall confirmed that the school, formed through the merger of Ivy Bank and Habergham Highs, no longer required ‘significant improvement’.

He added: “It is not yet good because teaching over time has not secured good progress in all subjects.

“The college is improving securely and has many positive features. Its inclusive ethos is demonstrated in the way that staff take care to find out the interests and talents of individual students and provide opportunities for these to be developed.”

Mrs Gornall was also impressed with a ‘strong’ rise in the proportion of students achieving five or more GCSE passes and rated the leadership of headteacher Gill Broom as ‘good’.

In a letter to Blessed Trinity, inspector Lee Northern said the Ormerod Road school was making good progress, noting that exam results and the quality of teaching there were seen to be improving.

“In the majority of lessons seen during the inspection, the quality of teaching was good or better,” added Mr Northern.

Coun Marcus Johnstone, who as a county councillor was previously responsible for the Building Schools for the Future programme, told a full council meeting that the challenge for Burnley schools was now to convince parents not to send their children to other establishments outside the borough.