Seend celebrate double inspection success

SEEND Primary School is celebrating a double success after being praised for its performance following a Ofsted and church inspection. 

Headteacher Jackie Chalk returned from the Easter break to a report from Ofsted which rates the school overall as ‘good’ with an inspection by the church rating the school as ‘outstanding’.

In the Ofsted report the school received positive feedback in each of the categories they are graded on, with particular praise of the behaviour and safety of pupils which was graded as outstanding. The report said, “Pupils have excellent attitudes to learning. They are enthusiastic, very attentive at all times, and are always interested in the activities they take part in.

“Pupils achieve well in all year groups. They make good progress in reading, writing and mathematics, and reach above average standards by the end of year six. Improvement in learning has risen in the last two years, particularly in reading and mathematics. Teaching is consistently good throughout the school and is sometimes outstanding, particularly in Key Stage 2. Teachers relate very effectively to pupils and have good subject knowledge and high expectations.

“The school is led very effectively by a decisive and caring headteacher who constantly encourages staff and pupils alike to do the best they can.”

The overall report of ‘good’ is the same as when the school was previously inspected in 2009. However since then, the Ofsted guidelines have become much tougher.

The church report looks at the school’s values, its effectiveness of religious education and its distinctiveness and effectiveness as a Church of England school. It graded the school as ‘outstanding’ which was an improvement on the previous report which rated Seend as ‘good’.

The latest Church report said, “Christian values lie at the heart of the school. Respect, forgiveness, tolerance, honesty and friendship are deeply embedded and lived out by the whole school community so that the strong Christian ethos is evident to all.”

Headteacher Jackie Chalk was delighted with the results. She said, “It is fantastic to see that the progress of the school and the hard work from staff and children is recognised in these reports.

“We are proud of the way we do things here as we look at the overall development of a child and teach them in a way that is beneficial to them as a person, as well as academically. The school has aspirations to continue to improve and in the latest Ofsted report we were told that we didn’t make the outstanding rating this time as we need to produce the quality results over a longer period of time. So we will look to maintain the high standards we have set in recent years and try and push on to the next level.

“It was intense having two inspections so close to each other, but it is testament to the hard work of the children, the support of the parents and everyone here that we have done so well.”