The Jersey Schools Review Framework was unveiled at the beginning of October and the aim is for all primary and secondary schools to be reviewed by December 2022. They will then be assessed every three years and the results published online within 19 working days.
JCG – which has more than 700 students aged 11-18 – has been assessed as a ‘great place to learn’ which ‘provides brilliantly for the needs and aspiration of its students’. Staff, leaders and governors were described as ‘committed and highly effective’, while teaching was assessed as of a ‘very high standard’.
JCG, the report concludes, is ‘modern thinking, inclusive and welcoming, while carefully upholding its much-valued traditions’.
In its summary, the Jersey Schools Review Framework report, which was carried out by a team of eight education consultants from outside Jersey who observed over 100 lessons, states: ‘Staff have excellent subject-specific expertise that they share with students clearly and interestingly, in and out of classes. In the course of any day each student takes part in an exciting sequence of terrific lessons making the most of the excellent equipment and facilities.’
The school has now been asked to take the following actions to improve further:
- Align evaluations and development plans more closely so that the targeting of specific actions is more precise. Check carefully that all planned school provision is happening to the high standards that the school sets itself.
- Ensure that time is consistently best used in lessons so that the main, very challenging, learning tasks have the highest priority, and students do not have to wait too long to get going on them.
- Ensure that staff consistently apply the school feedback policy so that students always know how to improve their work.
JCG Principal Carl Howarth said: ‘Every day our staff and students work so hard in close partnership to provide the highest standard of education built upon a strong culture of care. Following a very robust, rigorous and thorough independent review, we are delighted and very proud that the independent reviewers found JCG to be a “happy and high-performing school”.’
