Chippenham teachers make the grade in their report (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Chippenham teachers make the grade in their report

10:00am Thursday 21st February 2013 in News By Julie Armstrong, Senior reporter

St Paul’s Primary School in Chippenham has been awarded good in every category by Ofsted inspectors, two years after being named satisfactory.

Staff said they had worked hard and they were delighted that Ofsted had recognised the improvements that had been made.

The revised Ofsted framework of September 2012 made a good or better outcome even more challenging to achieve.

Headteacher Sheridan Upton said: “We have made changes to the way we deliver the curriculum, improved the quality of teaching and learning and increased our engagement with parents.

“The staff, governors, parents and pupils have been committed to the changes we have brought in and we were so pleased Ofsted gave us the judgement we felt we deserved.”

Inspectors visited the school at The Oaks in December and published their report last month, which said pupils felt safe at the school, were polite to one another and to adults and had good attitudes to learning.

Mr Upton said: “We were also pleased the Ofsted team reported on the good behaviour and positive attitudes towards learning from our pupils.” Ofsted found pupils’ achievement had improved year on year since the last inspection.

Despite the majority of children starting at the school with lower than average levels of attainment for their age, they made good progress in most subjects.

In order to further improve St Paul’s is advised to raise standards in reading and writing for the lowest attaining pupils, especially in Key Stage 1, by ensuring pupils understand how to use phonics skills to help them work out unfamiliar words, and sharing with parents how pupils can improve their reading.

Teaching – in particular of writing – was judged to be good. Ofsted said staff dealt promptly with the misbehaviour of a minority of pupils and met all safeguarding requirements.

The report said: “The strong partnership between the headteacher and the able deputy headteacher is the driving force behind the substantial improvements that have been secured at the school since the last inspection.”

Governors should be comparing how well the school is doing with similar schools, inspectors said.

Mr Upton said: “Our self-evaluation of the school had already identified the areas for improvement reported by Ofsted and we remain determined to raise standards even further.”