Education

Staff at Spalding’s Sir John Gleed School are cautiously optimistic that its two-year stint in special measures is over. Education watchdog Ofsted carried out an inspection just before the Easter holidays and the indications are that sufficient progress has been made to remove its lowest rating. The report is due to be published imminently and, if confirmed, the news will ...

The final two days of term at Spalding Monkshouse Primary School saw pupils from reception through to year five put on an Easter tea performance. Residents from sheltered accommodation at Sezanne Walk were first to see the show, which included an Easter hat parade and musical renditions, accompanied by tea and cake. And on Friday it was the turn of ...

The one teacher who has remained at Sir John Gleed School in Spalding since 1974 had a retirement party on Friday. Fellow staff members, former colleagues and ex-pupils joined head of computer studies Ray Isaacs (63) at The Birds pub in Halmergate. Many thousands of students have been taught by Mr Isaacs, who joined Gleed Girls’ School as a geography ...

Desperate parents of disabled children have launched a campaign to try and prevent a funding cut to after-school activities. Lincolnshire County Council is reviewing its financial support. For pupils at The Garth School in Spalding it means regular activities laid on by Action For Children – such as ten-pin bowling at AlleyCatz, and arts and craft and cookery sessions – ...

A childminder who is training as a mentor for fellow professionals has received an outstanding Ofsted inspection. Clair Wooding, who already runs drop-in sessions for fellow childminders in her home village of Holbeach St Marks, has been a child minder for 15 years and is delighted to receive the top grading from the education inspectors for the care she provides ...

“Intensive support” is still needed to improve standards at South Holland primary schools a year after almost half were found to be “requiring improvement”. During the summer of 2013, it was identified that 17 of the district’s 35 primary schools (48 per cent) needed to improve – compared to just 20 per cent in the whole of Lincolnshire. It led ...

More than 90 per cent of children have received offers for their first choice of secondary schools. Offers for places at secondary schools have been made available to parents today. Of the 7,507 offers made to secondary schools, 93 per cent of children will receive their first preference school (6,948 children). The figure for second preference offers is 5.7per cent ...

Pupils took part in a poster competition to raise awareness of Internet Safety Day. During their personal development lessons, pupils at Donington’s Thomas Cowley High School looked at ways to keep themselves safe online. PSHE co-ordinator Clytie Smith said: “As social media is such an integral part of young people’s lives today, it is vital that they understand where the ...

A mobile planetarium visited Spalding’s Monkshouse Primary School as part of the Infinity and Beyond science curriculum for Years 5 and 6. The children really enjoyed the experience and teacher Katherine Thorpe thought it was “mind boggling”. One pupil said that the most amazing thing he had learnt was that there were more stars in the sky than grains of ...

A drive to launch a bilingual Spanish and English primary school in Spalding this September has ended in disappointment. The government’s Department for Education (DfE) has turned down the application by Invicta Group. Spalding has recently been identified as having too little provision for primary school places in the future due to the town’s anticipated continued population growth. Invicta Group ...

A petition against “crazy” government changes to the GCSE English Literature curriculum has been launched at Donington’s Thomas Cowley High School. Assistant headteacher Mary Meredith said: “Students in our current Year 9 will have to commit between 15 and 18 complex and challenging poems to memory so that they can ‘closely analyse’ them in an exam. So poetry learned parrot ...

Unrest among some staff at Spalding’s Sir John Gleed School has been the focus of trade unions talks in recent days. Representatives of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and The Teachers’ Union (NASUWT) have been working to resolve issues. The school, which has been in special measures since April 2013, declined to elaborate much. However, a statement issued by ...

Pupils at Spalding’s Monkshouse Primary School held a red carpet event to premiere their very own short film. Year Four pupils worked with specialist firm Enrich for a number of weeks to create the film and did all their own camera and sound work, learned about editing and special effects, wrote scripts and acted. Headteacher Sue Goodsell said: “We decided to ...

Primary school children could be encouraged to decide what career they want when they grow up in a bid to provide the skills needed to fill jobs in Lincolnshire. It is believed that around 200,000 people would be needed between 2014 and 2022 to fill vacancies to grow the county’s economy. This could include up to 182,000 new jobs in ...

More building work could be on the cards at a village primary school to keep pace with demand for places. Pinchbeck East Primary School opened two new classrooms at the end of the last school year, but parents are now being asked their views on plans to expand further so the school has space for a permanent intake of 60 ...

Options are being looked at to cope with the increasing demand for primary school places in Spalding. Lincolnshire County Council is already consulting on expanding Monkshouse Primary School’s published admission number by a third, from 315 to 420. But the local authority says that measure in itself will not be enough to address the town’s expanding population of four to ...

A Spalding teenager is appearing on advertising billboards across the country to promote National Citizen Service (NCS). Ellie Harrison was invited to take part in the campaign, entitled Our Future, as a result of her transformation in confidence following a social action project on the NCS programme. She helped residents and staff at care home Southfields House in Woolram Wygate, ...

A gap in the market for a day nursery in the Holbeach Drove area has led to the £25,000 conversion of a former pub. Paula Somers, who has eight years’ experience as a childminder, and brother-in-law Mark Dale teamed up to launch Giggles Galore this month. It follows an extensive refurbishment of The Golden Ball in Main Road. Mark said: ...

More than 85 per cent of primary aged children in Lincolnshire and over 75 per cent of secondary children attend a good or outstanding school. The figures have been revealed in the annual report by Ofsted, which has carried out almost 6,500 inspections at more than 21,000 schools across England and Wales in 2013/14. Nationally, 82 per cent of primary ...

The primary school in West Pinchbeck has just four issues to address before it might be rated outstanding by education inspectors. OFSTED says St Bartholomew’s has moved on even more since its previous “good” rating, which it was given again. Headteacher Michelle Parker was praised in the report for her “relentless drive” towards raising expectations of pupils’ learning and achievement. ...