Ofsted praises ‘outstanding’ features at The Acorns Primary and Nursery School

A PRIMARY school has outstanding features, Ofsted inspectors found.

The Acorns Primary and Nursery School on Pooltown Road, which has 325 pupils aged three-11, operated on a split site until last November.

The school runs breakfast and after-school clubs each day.

It also has an arrangement with a small primary school in Lower Whitley in north Cheshire which involves headteacher Amanda Powell spending one day each week at that school.

In their findings, the inspectors say The Acorns is a good school that has maintained and built further on its previously good performance.

This has been driven by continuous improvement in the effectiveness of its leadership and management, including the governors, which is now outstanding.

The school’s overall effectiveness is not yet outstanding because teaching and the pupils’ achievement is good overall.

Standards in reading and writing, while continuing to rise steadily, are not as high as in mathematics.

The proportion of teaching that is better than good is also not high enough to be regarded as outstanding for all pupils.

Children make a good start in the early years stage and their good progress continues through Key Stages 1 and 2 so all pupils achieve well.

Teaching is consistently good and sometimes outstanding and is enhanced by the contribution of high-quality teaching assistants and other staff who are a key part of the whole school team.

The headteacher and senior leaders set high standards and there is a ‘relentless drive’ for improvement. The inspectors referred to the headteacher’s ‘outstanding leadership’.

The behaviour and safety of pupils of the school is outstanding and they have enthusiastic and positive attitudes to learning and respect each other and adults.

Although attendance is below the national average, work which is being done to deal with this shows significant improvement.

To help the school improve further, they have asked for standards in reading and writing to be raised, along with the proportion of teaching that is outstanding.

In a letter to the children, inspector Marguerite Murphy said: “We are pleased to report that your school is good, with a number of aspects that are already outstanding, including some that have improved further since its last inspection.

“Well done and good luck for the future.”