Laura Bagshaw TEACHERS and pupils at Flegg High School left for the half-term break on a high after being praised by inspectors for making an “outstanding contribution to the community.

Laura Bagshaw

TEACHERS and pupils at Flegg High School left for the half-term break on a high after being praised by inspectors for making an “outstanding contribution to the community.”

Education watchdog Ofsted visited the Martham school in January and found it to be a “satisfactory school with many strengths” including mathematics where pupils excel.

The praise is all the more satisfying given that staff and pupils experienced a turbulent 2007 where much of the Somerton Road school resembled a building site because of work to accommodate an extra year of Year 7s.

Inspectors recognised this had placed considerable demands on school leaders, managers, teachers and students, saying in their report: “The school has overcome many of the difficulties it faced last year and is now in a much stronger position to move forward.”

Pupils told inspectors that the school is a safe, healthy and enjoyable place to be in. They adopt a wide range of responsibilities, which inspectors felt made “an outstanding contribution to the community”.

Headteacher Cherry Crowley was praised along with her senior leadership team for the significant impact they had made at the school.

She said the 18 months of building work, which saw parts of the school transformed from single storey into double storey, had been very difficult with results dipping slightly as a consequence.

Mrs Crowley said: “I have an exceptional staff - some of the people who have joined us in the last two to three years have really added quality to the life of Flegg High - and now we have got our new buildings and are not being constantly disrupted by having to change rooms, I have no doubt that we are going to become an outstanding rural high school.”

She added that staff were very pleased that inspectors recognised the school's strengths in guidance and support for pupils, its enrichment activities and the positive impact of the business and enterprise specialism.

The school, which has 978 pupils aged from 11 to 16, has been asked to make better use of the information gained from monitoring teaching and learning to increase the proportion of good or better lessons.

While standards in maths at GCSE are high, inspectors said that achievement in English and science were below average and needed to be brought in line with maths.

It also needs to continue to raise the aspiration and achievement of boys in Key Stage 4 and ensure that personal, social and health education, and citizenship become firmly embedded into the curriculum.