Spalding primary school maintains Ofsted ‘good’ rating

Ofsted inspectors say Spalding’s St John’s Primary School continues to be “good”.

A report, published following a short inspection on February 1, said the school had maintained its December 2012 rating.

The report, to headteacher Paul Reid, said: “You have recently successfully steered the school through a turbulent time of staffing and governance change.”
It added: “In 2016, pupil outcomes at the end of Key Stage Two dipped in writing. However, you have swiftly identified the reasons for this and have taken decisive action to ensure that the development of pupils’ spelling, punctuation and grammar skills is becoming embedded in extended pieces of writing.”

Positives included:

• a strong assessment system to monitor and track the progress of pupils, including disadvantaged pupils;
• leaders’ recent work to improve standards in mathematics has been successful and led to pupils in 2016 achieving better than national outcomes.;
• indications the vast majority of pupils are on track to achieve age-related expectations in reading, writing and maths;
• pupils said they enjoy school.

To further improve the school is advised to ensure:

• teachers embed their positive work to improve pupils’ spelling, punctuation and grammar skills;
• accuracy of  assessments in writing continue to be improved through joint moderation work with external partners;
• governors undertake training to better understand pupil progress, particularly disadvantaged pupils.