Headteacher remains positive despite “requires improvement” Ofsted grading

The headteacher of a primary school remains positive, despite being told it requires improvement again by Ofsted.

Alderman Swindell Primary School has been given the grading following an inspection last month. It will be inspected again in the next six months, and headteacher Alison Hopley is confident of a better outcome.

She said: “We were disappointed with the outcome, but it is something we have to take on the chin, take in our stride and keep pushing forward.

“We are not going to winge and moan. We will address the issues at hand, we have an inspection plan written, and hopefully in six months time come our next inspection, we are confident we will have something much more positive to report on.”

The school was rated as requires improvement in the following areas - effectiveness of leadership and management, quality of teaching, learning and assessment, outcome of pupils and early years provision.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare of children was rated as good.

The report stated: “Although improvements have been made to the quality of teaching, learning and assessment since the previous inspection, senior leaders have not yet secured good teaching across all year groups.

“In many classes pupils are now making good progress in mathematics and English. However, there remains too much teaching that requires improvement. Senior leaders are aware of where weaknesses lie, and have taken steps to provide teachers with appropriate support.

“However, at the time of this inspection, their actions had not yet had the required impact.”

Ofsted also highlighted the positive views of parents towards the school.

In a questionnaire supplied from the inspectors to the school’s parents, a large majority said they would recommend Alderman Swindell to other parents.

Miss Hopley said: “The parents have been fantastic. We have always had fantastic support and there are many positive things we can build on.

“Attendance at the school is great and results are improving year on year and are above national average.

“We have been and are looking at changes at the school. At the start of the year we had only had two governors who continued on from last year, and now we have eight with one vacancy.

“There will also be some staffing adjustments come September. We are working with maths and early year advisors, we are calling the troops you can say to help us out.”