Former failing school on up
A school has vowed to continue to work hard and provide the best education for pupils after receiving its first Ofsted inspection as an academy.
Mount Pellon Primary Academy, Battinson Road, had suffered from a history of poor teaching, leadership and academic achievement, which had resulted in it being placed in special measures three times in ten years.
Formerly Mount Pellon Junior and Infant School, it became an academy in April 2013, sponsored by the Northern Education Trust.
The report outlined that the school still requires overall improvement and pinpointed the quality of teaching, achievement of pupils and early years provision as specific areas where improvement is needed.
But the school is now on the road to recovery, receiving a ‘good’ rating for the behaviour and safety of pupils and leadership and management.
The school was praised for its determination in improving the quality of teaching and raising standards of achievement, for the rapidly improving quality of teaching as well as pupils’ behaviour and their attitude towards learning.
The work of principal Cathy Hayton was also praised and the report outlined that she has systematically tackled inadequate teaching, poor staff morale, low expectation of pupils and poor behaviour.
The principal said that although the school has a long way to go, she is determined to make Mount Pellon an outstanding school.
“We were very pleased with the report overall because the inspectors recognised the progress we had made since converting to an academy,” she said.
“To be awarded a ‘good’ for leadership and management as well as for behaviour and safety of pupils is really encouraging and is testimony to the dedication and hard work of all teaching staff and ,of course, the children them- selves – many of whom live in a very disadvantaged area.
“We are absolutely determined to ensure that every Mount Pellon child gets the best possible education and start in life.
“It is what every child de- serves.
“Whilst we still have a long way to go, it is our aim to make Mount Pellon an outstanding school within a further two years.
“I am confident we will achieve this.” The school was praised for its dedication to improving the quality of teaching and raising standards of achievement. Governers hold senior leaders to account and monitor the quality of teaching and pupils’ learning. Staff, including teachers and teaching assistants, know what the academy’s improvement priorities are. The quality of teaching is improving and training is effective. Careful planning, well thought out policies and regular meetings ensure pupils make rapid progress in reading, writing and maths and the majority of parents say their children are happy and safe at the academy. However, the attainment of pupils in key subjects was below average. Teaching requires improvement, more opportunties need to be provided to refine writing skills, grammar, punctuation and phonics and early years provision needs to be improved.