Head praises team at Royston school for outstanding Ofsted grading
Icknield Walk First School pupils, pictured with headteacher Jane Sherwood, give the thumbs up to the Ofsted report - Credit: Archant
A headteacher has paid tribute to her team after her school was graded outstanding in all areas after a visit by inspectors.
The inspectors from Ofsted visited Icknield Walk First School in Royston in July, and subsequently delivered a report which praised all areas of school life.
Icknield Walk received a ‘good’ rating last time it was inspected, in March 2009, and the outstanding rating comes after the introduction of new, stricter, Ofsted guidelines, which have made achieving outstanding status much more difficult.
Headteacher Jane Sherwood said: “It’s been a bit of a journey for everyone at the school.
“It already had a good rating when I was appointed, and everyone has worked really hard to get outstanding, from the teachers to the other staff and the governors.”
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In her report, lead inspector Gillian Scobie praised leadership and teaching standards at the school.
She said: “The curriculum is very imaginative and is well planned to enable pupils to make outstanding progress in literacy and numeracy.
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“It promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development exceptionally well.”
Mrs Sherwood said: “We’ve worked hard on our planning, and I think the key is to make lessons exciting for the children.
“We’ve used a lot of drama and dressing up to try and make the curriculum come to life, so that the children find it interesting and are learning even when they don’t know it.”
To mark the achievement, everyone involved at the school will be celebrating tomorrow with an afternoon of fun, including games, art activities, a bouncy castle and ice creams.
“This result is about everybody at the school,” said Mrs Sherwood. “We thought it was really important to do something with the children and their families to mark this great achievement.”
