An Isle of Wight headteacher has responded to an Ofsted letter which noted “more work is necessary” for her school to receive a “good” rating.
Maggie Sanderson, executive headteacher at St Mary’s Catholic Primary School, said the school was “pleased” the letter had identified that “progress” is “being made” at the school.
Mrs Sanderson said,
“The monitoring visit reflected that the (school’s) leaders have worked hard and have been supported by the staff within the school to facilitate progress from the previous full inspection.
“This report recognises the improvements that have already happened and is pleasing to see this reflected in the progress of the pupils.
“The KS2 SATS data this year shows a two-year improvement with 66.7 per cent of this year’s cohort achieving above the National and Island average in the combined reading, writing and maths data.
“We are very proud of the effort that the students and staff put into our school.
“It is great to see that the impact is positive. We look forward to welcoming Ofsted back with the aim to achieve good across the board.”
Sanderson: St Mary’s has a clear improvement plan”
As to how the school can achieve a ‘good’ Ofsted rating when the school has its next inspection, the headteacher said St Mary’s has a “clear improvement plan” which inspectors have “recognised” and given credit.
In response to “some inconsistencies” in the school’s phonics teaching identified by Ofsted, she said staff had “received robust training” for its phonics scheme and will continue to receive high quality Continuing Professional Development in order to “refine and improve” teaching quality.
Ofsted’s monitoring letter also said that in “many subjects”, St Mary’s curriculum regularly “lacks sufficient precision”.
Sanderson: The curriculum is exciting and challenging
Commenting on this point, Mrs Sanderson said,
“As identified on the improvement plan seen by Ofsted the curriculum is in a stage of development and the staff are refining the provision.
“The curriculum is exciting and challenging.
“Year 3 are currently navigating the Isle of Wight in their geography learning and will soon be carrying out some fieldwork by bus to bring the landmarks alive and to record our own data.
“Year 4 are currently Studying the Romans in History and are reading Escape from Pompeii. They will bring their learning to life with a visit to the Roman Villa.
“In Year 1, they are currently becoming meteorologists by studying our local weather and comparing this to other parts of the UK.
“For PE and healthy bodies, we have bikeability sessions planned for Autumn as well as the sailing that children have already taken part in this term.”
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which News OnTheWight is taking part in. Some alterations and additions may have been made by OnTheWight. Ed
