‘Improving’ school gets good marks
A‘RAPIDLY improving’ school is celebrating after getting a thumbs up from education inspectors.
Broken Cross Primary Academy was struggling three years ago after a poor set of results and falling pupil numbers.
It was rescued when it was incorporated into the Fallibroome Trust - a collection of four primary schools supported by Fal- libroome Academy.
Now, teachers and governors have been given a positive report achieving ‘good’ in four out of five areas including: leadership and management; quality of teaching; learning and assessment; personal development; behaviour and welfare; and early years provision.
But the school must do more to improve its ‘outcomes for pupils’, which the school blames of ‘legacy issues’.
Ofsted results in found that 2016 show pupils’ progress and writing ‘well below national expectations’, but accepted that ‘good leadership and teaching have not been in place long enough to have a significant impact on outcomes for pupils’. Ofsted also expressed concern that teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve were ‘not consistently high, particularly for writing and the most able pupils’ and while attendance had improved overall, ‘a minority of pupils do not come to school regu- larly enough’.
Peter Rubery, executive principal of Fallibroome Trust, said: “We were disappointed that a school that has been judged to be ‘good’ in four out of five areas was not judged to be good overall but we understand the constraints of the inspection framework. The inspector made it very clear that everything she observed was good or better and we are confident that pupils’ outcome in the summer of 2017 will reflect the excellence of the school.”
Nick Mannion, chair of governors, said he was delighted that Ofsted found the school ‘calm and purposeful’, adding: “It was pleasing that the inspector confirmed that good relationships and high quality teaching by a dedicated team of teachers and assistants inspired pupils to show a genuine enthusiasm for learning.”
Headteacher Donna Lewis said she is delighted Ofsted acknowledged the pride pupils and parents feel for their school, adding: “The fact that our reception class is oversubscribed for September illustrates the confidence of the community and our strong partnership with parents.”