Whaley Bridge school given first ‘good’ rating by Ofsted in 12 years

Staff and students at Whaley Bridge Primary School are delighted with the new grading following an inspection from the education watchdog during the last two weeks of term in the summer. The school had been rated as ‘requires improvement’ for the last 12 years so the new rating is a big step up.

Headteacher at the Buxton Road school, Serren Hathway said: “This is such good news.

“For 12 years the school has been graded as requiring improvement so to now be a good school is a massive boost for everyone in the community.

“We have worked so hard to get here. We have redone the curriculum making it personal to us and you can see it has paid off as last year our Year 6 SATs results were higher than the national average.

“We pride ourselves on giving every child the opportunity to shine, be that through sports or the arts or with our Special Educational Needs programme.

“The inspection took place during the July heat wave just days before we broke up for the summer holidays but both staff and students shone during the visit and showed Ofsted how wonderful and inclusive the school really is.”

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Speaking in the report which was published last week, lead inspector Vic Wilkinson, said: “Leaders have recently introduced a new programme for teaching phonics.

“It is working well. Staff draw on their training to deliver the programme consistently. Pupils learn sounds in a logical order.

“They regularly revisit what they have learned before.”

The report noted much of the school’s curriculum is new.

Leaders have designed it specifically for the pupils of the school and it makes clear what pupils are expected to learn at each stage of their education and was described by inspectors as ‘well planned and sequenced’.

Safeguarding at the school is of the highest priority and staff are said to be well trained, the inspectors found.

When looking at what the school needs to do to improve Mr Wilkinson said: “While leaders keep detailed records of behaviour and attendance, they do not routinely evaluate these to identify trends or patterns that might emerge over time.“More frequent and incisive analysis of records will help to address potential issues sooner.”

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