‘Huge achievement’ in town school’s Ofsted rating U-turn
‘WE’RE GIVING CHILDREN ON THE EAST MARSH THE EDUCATION THEY DESERVE’
A SCHOOL in Grimsby has made several breakthroughs after Ofsted previously said that it “requires improvements”.
Weelsby Academy on the East Marsh prides itself on providing high quality learning experiences for children between the ages of 3 and 11. Despite this, it was awarded a grade three rating from Ofsted after its last inspection back in 2018 - indicating that several departments needed improving. The academy has since turned this around and upped their rating across all four main criteria, including the quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development and leadership and management. Inspectors have now rated the school “good” overall.
In the newly published report, inspectors noted: “Pupils enjoy coming to school because they feel cared for and successful. Staff have high expectations of how pupils should behave and how well they can do in their work. Pupils have the utmost respect for their teachers and so rise to these expectations.
“Children in the early years get off to a flying start in their knowledge and attitudes. They use what staff have taught them when working independently. Children are highly focused on what they are doing as the environment is so well matched to what they have been taught and what they need to learn next.”
They continued: “Staff are well supported in the school. Leaders, including trust leaders, provide a wealth of training and development opportunities. These include watching expert teachers in this school or other schools and working with subject specialists.” Head of Academy Catherine Davenport believes that this turnaround is a “huge achievement” for the school. She was particularly proud of the pupils and staff in the early years foundation stage as that department was awarded an “outstanding” rating.
“It’s been a long and hard journey to transform the school,” she said. “We are now achieving results above the national average and have achieved academic success right across the board.
“We’re really proud of our little school as we’re giving the children on the East Marsh the education they deserve. Our children come from one of the most deprived areas of town and now they’ve got a school they can be proud of.”
The only issue that Ofsted noticed was that some teachers lacked aspects of important subject knowledge in a few subjects in the early key stages. Therefore pupils can go on to make mistakes that are not corrected.