OFSTED revises Bedford Free School grade to outstanding

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Staff, pupils and parents are celebrating news that OFSTED has reviewed it’s recent judgement of Bedford Free School (BFS) and now grades it as an outstanding school in every category.

It is a school which “provides high-quality education” and “teachers understand exactly what pupils need to know and be able to do” so that they “remember a great deal of what they have learned”.  

The updated report, published on Wednesday, March 11, judges that the school is “outstanding” in every category. This is the highest possible inspection grade.

Previously, the inspection of January 15 and 16 had graded three out of four areas as ‘outstanding’.

At the point when the school was issued with its final report to share with parents, five days ahead of publication, senior leaders at the school raised concerns about the judgement.

Ahead of final web publication, Ofsted investigated these concerns.

Following Ofsted’s review of the inspection evidence, Ofsted concluded that the 4th area; quality of education, was also ‘outstanding’ rather than ‘good’. This means the overall judgement is now also outstanding, and the final report has duly been amended to reflect this change.

Publication on the Ofsted website will be on March 18, 2020.

In particular, the report praises the school’s ethos and high expectations.

The school, which was recently confirmed as within the top 150 performing secondary schools nationally in the league tables, is celebrating this recognition of its performance.