Patchway Community College (PCC) has been placed in ‘special measures’ following the publication of a damning report by Ofsted inspectors who visited the secondary school in early October.

Assigning the lowest possible overall rating of ‘inadequate’, lead inspector Kathy Maddocks concluded that standards at the school have declined in recent years, and criticised school leaders and governors for being too slow to implement necessary changes.

The quality of teaching at the school is described as “poor”, pupils do not make sufficient progress in a range of subjects and measures to guarantee pupils’ safety are “weak”.

All five of the individual effectiveness measures assessed by the inspectors resulted in an ‘inadequate’ grading.

One of the few positive observations contained in the report is that pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities are “achieving well”.

Inspectors do, however, note that the new headteacher, Karen Cornick, only took up the post four weeks prior to the inspection and remark that “there is evidence of her positive impact already”.

In a letter sent to parents on 21st November , the headteacher describes the report as a “huge blow” and points out that, while the school had much-improved outcomes at GCSE and Post-16 in 2015/16, the inspection team had been obliged to consider progress over the last three years.

As a consequence of being placed in special measures, the school’s governing body has been in further discussions with the Olympus Academy Trust (which it had already approached about joining back in January 2016) and the Regional Schools Commissioner.

The trust, which already incorporates two local secondary schools (Bradley Stoke Community School and Abbeywood Community School), issued a statement saying it was “frustrated that an agreement has still not been reached about levels of funding support for Patchway from the Department for Education (DfE) and the Education Funding Agency (EFA) in order for Patchway to join the trust”. The statement added: “We hope there will be a swift resolution by the DfE and EFA so that learners and staff at Patchway are able to benefit from joining the trust without further delay.”

Parents and carers of students at PCC have been invited to attend a meeting at the school on Monday 28th November when the proposal to join the Olympus Academy Trust will be further explained, along with the school’s plan for addressing the key issues arising from the Ofsted inspection.

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Aerospace Bristol has celebrated a major milestone in the construction of the new home of Concorde, with a topping out ceremony for the museum’s Concorde hangar attended by HRH The Princess Royal.

The £19m museum is currently taking shape at a site on the northern side of the former Filton Airfield, alongside Hayes Way, the road which links the A38 with The Mall at Cribbs Causeway [map].

The Concorde hangar will be home to Aerospace Bristol’s star attraction: Concorde 216. Designed, built and tested in Bristol, she was the last Concorde to be built and the last to fly. Due to open in summer 2017, Aerospace Bristol will offer more than just Concorde, taking visitors on a fascinating journey through time: from the earliest days of flight, when Boxkite biplanes flew over the Avon Gorge, through to the modern day, revealing the latest technologies of today’s aerospace industry and telling the amazing stories of ordinary people achieving extraordinary things.

HRH The Princess Royal toured the site and met with Aerospace Bristol volunteers, who are hard at work preparing the exhibits for display in the new museum, then unveiled the first piece of a feature wall: a specially engraved aeroplane sculpture to mark the occasion.

As Aerospace Bristol’s Patron, Her Royal Highness was also presented with a framed print of a magazine cover from the museum’s extensive historical archives. The Bristol Review cover, first published in Autumn 1957, shows a photograph of Princess Margaret, Princess Anne and Prince Charles on the steps of a BOAC Britannia as HM The Queen Mother set out from London for Rhodesia.

More: Major milestone towards opening of museum in summer 2017

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