North Bromsgrove High head praises staff, pupils and parents after school comes out of special measures 'in record time' - The Bromsgrove Standard

North Bromsgrove High head praises staff, pupils and parents after school comes out of special measures 'in record time'

Bromsgrove Editorial 12th Jun, 2019 Updated: 12th Jun, 2019   0

THE HEADTEACHER of North Bromsgrove High School has praised his staff, pupils and parents after it pulled itself out of special measures ‘in record time’.

Nick Gibson took up his role in October after running the outstanding St Benedict’s in Alcester which was ranked the top comprehensive school in the whole of the West Midlands two years running by The Sunday Times.

He said he had several options with regard to which school to go to next but when he walked through the doors of North Bromsgrove ‘it just felt right’.

Since his arrival he has implemented 42 new strategies to get the school back on track, from a roll call at the start of the day, tightening uniform policy and bringing in higher discipline standards to, at the request of the students, introducing prefects, a pupil reward system and a new house system.




There is also a new newsletter and parents can attend a fortnightly surgery with the headteacher if they have any concerns.

Mr Gibson said: “Like anything, communication is key and everybody is now communicating much better.


“The staff, pupils and children are all on board and I am confident we are on our way to becoming a good school but there is still much more to be done.

“Some schools can take three to four years to come out of special measures and we have done it in nine months.”

Mr Gibson refers to the school as the ‘North Bromsgrove family’ and he said the culture had changed from just a few months ago.

“Everyone knows they have to take responsibility for the school.

“I started by getting a group of 30 children and asking them what they thought should be done and what they wanted to see and we went from there.”

Ofsted inspectors arrived last month to carry out a routine inspection but after the initial examination took the unprecedented step of carrying out a full inspection.

Already some of the inspectors’ grades have risen to ‘good’ but to get an overall ‘good’ rating the majority of factors inspected have to be at that level.

Some take into account exam results and there have not been any since the improvements started to take shape – GCSE and A-level results will be revealed in August.

Also, as Mr Gibson tightened standards, there were a few exclusions which, he said, had a positive impact, as sited in the report.

But it meant at this stage it was impossible for North to get a rating higher than the one it achieved.

Ofsted is expected to return within two years but the headteacher hopes it is sooner, rather than later as he is confident North will then be ranked at least a good school overall and ‘on its journey to outstanding’.

Anja Potze, chair of the school’s Interim Executive Board, added: “The IEB is delighted with the rapid progress of North Bromsgrove High School and the fantastic achievement of coming out of special measures in one year.

“The IEB would like to thank all of the parents/carers for their support and congratulate the students and Nick Gibson and his staff team on their success.

“We look forward to seeing the school build on its new-found strengths.”

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