Lewisham school criticised for being too focussed on teaching students how to pass exams

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

A South London secondary school has been warned after it was too focused on teaching kids how to pass maths exams, rather than helping them properly understand the subject.

Inspectors gave Forest Hill School in Lewisham a rating of  “requires improvement” following a visit in October 2021.

PE staff told pupils what they needed to do to rack up marks in exams, but their teaching of sports lacked structure, inspectors said. Science lessons were also criticised for a lack of ambition.

The report reads: “Teaching in mathematics is driven by the GCSE examination requirements, rather than deeply embedding mathematical knowledge.

“While pupils generally enjoy participating in physical education (PE), the core programme is not sufficiently structured and, again, teaching and assessment are focused on what pupils need to do in order to gain examination marks.

“In science, while the curriculum is well-planned, teaching often lacks ambition and does not secure good-quality work.”

The school, which teaches 1,486 boys aged 11 to 18, has had issues for four years. An Ofsted report published in 2018 said the school required improvement in all areas except two. It was previously rated “good.”

Inspectors also criticised staff for turning a blind eye to bad behaviour in the classroom and corridors.

The report reads: “In class, pupils behave well where teacher expectations are high. However, this is not always the case.

“Low-level disruption impacts negatively on learning when teachers do not always maintain high expectations of behaviour and attitudes to learning.

“Similarly, a small number of pupils show boisterous behaviours in the corridors, and teachers do not deal with this consistently using the behaviour policy.”

Inspectors said teaching in English, geography and history was better than in other subjects at the school.

Inspectors visited the school between October 7 and October 8, 2021. A report of their findings was published on February 8, 2022.

In a letter to parents on February 8, headteacher Michael Sullivan said he was disappointed Ofsted didn’t acknowledge progress the school had made since its previous inspection.

He wrote: “Whilst we are pleased to receive ‘good’ judgements for personal development and sixth form provision, we are disappointed that the inspection team did not recognise the many other strengths of the school, or the significant progress which has been made in all areas since the 2017 inspection.

“Forest Hill School is a place transformed since that inspection, with step changes in standards of behaviour, attendance and classroom experience for our students. We expected that this could have been better recognised and commented on in the report.”

Forest Hill School said it wasn’t commenting any further on the report.