‘The naughty school’ gets its best grade in 45 years
A school is celebrating after achieving the highest Ofsted grade in its history.
The Tree Tops Primary Academy in Maidstone began life as Bellwoood Infants and Juniors, established in 1974.
In 2012, they merged to become Tree Tops Academy, and the school was taken over by the Leigh Academies Trust in 2016. In all that time, it had never received a ‘Good’ Ofsted rating - in fact often it was the reverse. At one stage it was placed among the five lowest performing schools in the country. However, all that has changed. With the school rated ‘Outstanding’ in the effectiveness of its leadership and management, and ‘Good’ in all other areas.
Head teacher at the Brishing Lane academy, Denise White, who has been in post for two years, said: “The school really didn’t have a very good reputation. It was known locally as ‘the naughty school’ and people turned their noses up at us. We’re all so pleased now that we have been able to turn that round. “The children are as proud as punch. It’s good news for us, and good news for the community.” Ofsted inspectors said the quality of teaching was good and improving, adding: “Staff work hard to ensure that pupils’ social and emotional development is given a high priority.
“Pupils enjoy coming to Tree Tops. They show good attitudes to school because staff make learning fun. The very large majority of parents who spoke to inspectors were extremely positive about the school.
“All said it has improved significantly over the last two years.” For the school to improve still further, the inspectors said it had to reduce pupils’ absence rates, which were still higher than average.
The school held a special picnic to celebrate and filmed a video of pupils doing a “flash mob” dance.
Watch the footage at tinyurl. com/KMtreetops