School gets 'lease of life'

10:00am Friday 1st August 2008

TERM ended on a high for pupils in Grove when inspectors said their school had been given a new lease of life.

Ofsted inspectors rated Grove Church of England Primary School 'satisfactory', with a number of good features.

They said it had gained a new lease of life since headteacher Wendy Grace took up the post in January and had potential to improve.

The 99-pupil school in North Drive has had a series of temporary headteachers for the last two years and a number of staff changes. It was rated satisfactory in its last Ofsted report in 2004.

Behaviour, teaching and learning had all improved, inspectors said, although that was not yet reflected in raised standards and achievement.

The care, personal development and wellbeing of the children, and the quality of the curriculum was praised, as was the variety of clubs and societies.

Inspector John Carnaghan said teachers should improve classroom management and help the pupils develop personal targets.

Mrs Grace said: "The report was as good as it could be. There are a lot of parts that are good in the report and for me, it was really quite positive. But I think people forget, satisfactory means fine.

"I think the instability of the staffing unsettled the children. Since the Ofsted report, our numbers have begun to grow in the school.

"We have done a lot of work in the outside area of the school and we have a new behaviour reward scheme in place. Two new teachers are starting in September, so we are really on the up. We've pulled everything together in the last six months and we really want to maintain the upward progress. It's a tribute to the hard work of the staff."