Responding to Ofsted with Confidence
- Weekends back for teachers
- More assessments, faster feedback
The Goal
Patchway Community School, part of The Olympus Academy Trust, had a clear directive from Ofsted: students needed more practice in exam skills and extended writing. For some teachers with two Year 11 classes, that meant mock weeks alone generating around 280 essays to assess for each teacher. The department needed a way to honour the Ofsted recommendation without overwhelming teachers already carrying a full timetable.
280 essays
per teacher marked in a week
-4 hours
saved per teacher per week
The Impact with Olex
- Ofsted’s recommendation acted on directly – more extended writing timetabled across KS4 without increasing teacher workload
- Friday to Monday turnaround – essays uploaded after school, feedback printed and ready for the next lesson
- Detailed, typed, AO-linked feedback for every student – replacing brief, rushed comments
- Students redrafting and improving work in the same week it was written
- Sunday afternoon marking replaced by 30-45 minutes after school on a Friday
“One of the feedback points we got from Ofsted was that students needed to practice exam skills and extended writing more. But more extended writing means more marking. Olex meant we could put those exam skills in place without burdening teachers with an astronomical workload.”
Anna Cornish, Deputy CTL of English, Patchway Community School
How They Did It
- Timetabled weekly “Big Write” sessions for both Year 10 and Year 11 – one hour on a Friday afternoon using past paper questions
- After school on Friday, essays photographed using Snap Snap and uploaded to Olex
- Teachers read through detailed, personalised feedback before sending back to students
- Feedback printed and stapled to essays, ready for Monday morning lesson
- Monday lesson structured around whole-class feedback (using Olex’s class insights)
- Department cycling through curriculum topics with fortnightly feedback loops that previously weren’t possible
“Before Olex, Sunday afternoons were dedicated to marking - no way around it. Now I stay for half an hour after school on a Friday, snap the essays, and by Monday morning the feedback is ready. We can immediately address those concerns - whereas before, we'd already moved on to the next topic.”
Anna Cornish, Deputy CTL of English, Patchway Community School
What's Next?
- Embedding consistent Olex use across the full Year 10 cohort and wider department
- Exploring KS3 capability with custom rubrics aligned to the trust’s age-related expectations
- Incoming Year 7 cohort identified as a priority for structured writing feedback
Schedule a Demo
We’d love to show you how Olex.AI works for schools and trusts in a 30-minute demo of the platform.
