St James Catholic
Primary School
In the loving peace, justice and joy of Jesus, we achieve.
School to School review
Our school has not had an official Ofsted Inspection since 2009. Since that time there have been a great many changes to the way schools are inspected and the goal post have moved considerably. Schools are judged on: Achievement of Pupils, The Quality of Teaching, Behaviour and Safety and Leadership and Management.
On Thursday of last week, we invited the Head Teachers and Deputy Head Teachers of 2 local schools into our school to lead a school review. They were led by Pat Smart, a qualified Ofsted Inspector, a National Leader in Education and the Executive Head Teacher of Greet and Conway Primary Schools.
The reviewers observed and judged lessons, scrutinised children’s work in books and interviewed children to ascertain their views of their school. I am very pleased to announce that the school received an outcome of ‘Good’ in each of the 4 areas.
Although we may like to think of ourselves as Outstanding in some areas like ‘Behaviour’, Ofsted have made it very difficult for all children to attain such incredibly high standards. Some of Ofsted guidelines for ‘Outstanding Behaviour’ are:
Pupils behaviour outside lessons is almost always impeccable
All children consistently display a thirst for knowledge and a love of learning
Both of which are very difficult to instil in all of our pupils- though a great many do show both of these attributes
The review does state:
Relationships between pupils and with the staff are very good, including with administrative staff and lunchtime supervisors. The strong faith-base of the school encourages good behaviour, empathy and spiritual reflection. These combine to give pupils a strong sense of what it means to be part of St James’ community.
Pupils enjoy coming to school and are openly proud of St James’. They are polite and welcoming to visitors.
The outcomes of the review matched our own self evaluation, which confirmed that our own judgements of our school are accurate. We will undertake a review of this nature each year so that we can make sure we are continually working hard to ensure the best possible outcomes for our children. I would like to thank all the staff of St James’ for their incredible hard work and commitment during the review.
On Thursday of last week, we invited the Head Teachers and Deputy Head Teachers of 2 local schools into our school to lead a school review. They were led by Pat Smart, a qualified Ofsted Inspector, a National Leader in Education and the Executive Head Teacher of Greet and Conway Primary Schools.
The reviewers observed and judged lessons, scrutinised children’s work in books and interviewed children to ascertain their views of their school. I am very pleased to announce that the school received an outcome of ‘Good’ in each of the 4 areas.
Although we may like to think of ourselves as Outstanding in some areas like ‘Behaviour’, Ofsted have made it very difficult for all children to attain such incredibly high standards. Some of Ofsted guidelines for ‘Outstanding Behaviour’ are:
Pupils behaviour outside lessons is almost always impeccable
All children consistently display a thirst for knowledge and a love of learning
Both of which are very difficult to instil in all of our pupils- though a great many do show both of these attributes
The review does state:
Relationships between pupils and with the staff are very good, including with administrative staff and lunchtime supervisors. The strong faith-base of the school encourages good behaviour, empathy and spiritual reflection. These combine to give pupils a strong sense of what it means to be part of St James’ community.
Pupils enjoy coming to school and are openly proud of St James’. They are polite and welcoming to visitors.
The outcomes of the review matched our own self evaluation, which confirmed that our own judgements of our school are accurate. We will undertake a review of this nature each year so that we can make sure we are continually working hard to ensure the best possible outcomes for our children. I would like to thank all the staff of St James’ for their incredible hard work and commitment during the review.