It’s 10 out of 10 for Aldershot
Park Primary’s success means every primary school in the town has a minimum Ofsted rating of ‘good’
ALDERSHOT can now boast a clean sweep of primary schools with an Ofsted grade of good or better after the final piece of the jigsaw fell into place.
Park Primary School is celebrating after the school was rated ‘good’ in its latest Ofsted report, an improvement on the ‘satisfactory’ verdict on the previous visit.
All 10 primary schools in Aldershot are now rated at least good, the second best grade, and so all children in the town moving up from nursery in September can be confident of taking their places in well-run schools.
Aldershot schools have not always enjoyed such success.
The improvement is being credited to a recent collaboration scheme allowing schools to liaise and discuss methods and ways to improve.
Park Primary’s report, published this month, praised pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and said the staff were an effective team. Part of it read: “All groups of pupils make good progress from their starting points because of consistently good and sometimes outstanding teaching. Progress in mathematics has improved considerably since the previous inspection.”
Pushing more able pupils and improving teachers’ skills were deemed areas of potential improvement.
Kate Steven, headteacher since January 2012, said: “We’re really proud of the achievement of our school and the children and our staff who work there.
“We’re proud that they (the inspectors) recognised we are a warm and welcoming school and the children are very well supported. They’ve noted that we’re effective and looking to improve. We’re going for ‘outstanding’ now.”
Councillor Peter Edgar, Hampshire County Council’s executive member for education, added his own praise for the collective achievement of Aldershot’s primary schools.
“This is great news for families in the Aldershot area and clearly demonstrates the positive impact of schools working together to improve provision and outcomes for school children,” he said.
“With the support of this authority’s school improvement officers, the primary school headteachers collaborated to develop an extensive programme of interschool training and development.
The programme has grown extensively in the last three years and includes regular meetings of teachers in each year group, from all the schools, to share examples of children’s work and to challenge each other to raise expectations of what might be achieved by children in that year group.
He added: “The area is fortunate that the headteachers and teaching staff at these schools have been, and continue to be, dedicated to working with us to ensure Aldershot children enjoy a high standard of education.”
St Michael’s CoE Junior School and Wellington Community Primary School are other schools to have moved up the scale to a good ratiing within the last two years.
Newport Junior School was rated outstanding – Ofsted’s top rating – in June 2011, having been satisfactory in 2007, and St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School followed suit in September 2011.
However the Connaught, Aldershot’s only secondary school, is rated as requires improvement – the second lowest grade.