An excellent Puckeridge primary school achieved first-class grades in all but one area of its recent Ofsted inspection.
St Thomas of Canterbury Primary School’s October 2007 inspection found teaching, organisation and leadership standards officially ‘outstanding’.
Action-points from its previous 2003 report had been tackled very successfully, and the school’s high-quality foundation-years provision was particularly praised.
Senior Teacher Michelle Keating said: “We knew we were doing well, as we’ve got fantastic grades, with the last three years significantly high, but it’s always a nice surprise and good to confirm the feelings we have about the school.”
St Thomas’ 2003 evaluation saw it attain consistently good levels but not in all areas, highlighting aspects to improve upon including creating better writing skills in pupils by age 7 and better mathematical ability by age 11.
The new evaluation could criticise little, especially in core areas, pointing out only that the school needs to “develop ways to monitor the impact of the non-core curriculum on pupils' learning” and “consider further ways to improve cross-curricular links to make the curriculum even more meaningful to pupils.”
The school is already addressing these, operating a more creative curriculum with emphasis on multi-skilled subjects such as History and Geography.
Lead Inspector Geof Timms said: “pupils had a lot of very positive things to say about the school, as did parents, and I certainly agree. I think St Thomas' is an outstanding school.”
His report highlighted the school’s caring ethos and close links with parents, creating what Mrs Keating described as a “close tight-knit community.”
A parent interviewed by Mr Timms said: “There is a very good atmosphere between teachers, parents and children which enables my child to get the education she deserves.”
ENDS
Word Count: 284
REFLECTIVE REPORT:
This story was given to me by one of the news team at the Royston Crow where I am undertaking work experience. The school’s P.R. Department had emailed the paper to highlight its success in its recent Ofsted Report.
It was straightforward to research. First, I visited the school’s website (http://www.stcanterbury.herts.sch.uk/) to get background information on the school,
Then visited the Ofsted website to see the school’s full report. (http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/reports - school/report reference number 117454).
The site has a function that allows you to search by postcode to see schools in your area, designed primarily for parents to look to see results so they can make an informed choice as to which school they send their children to.
A quick search gave access to not only the schools latest report but also the archives where I located its 2003 one as well – this was important as I needed to compare them. It gave a better angle and was more news worthy if I could see that the school had improved or declined in quality since its last evaluation.
I then formulated questions and phoned the school to speak to the headmistress. She was unavailable, but I instead interviewed the senior teacher, who also happened to be the head of foundation years learning which was especially praised in the report. This was a lucky break as she was especially happy with the outcome and so more talkative and amiable.
I structured the article with a standard four paragraph introduction, detailing the usual ‘who, what, when, where and how’ and angled the story on the success of the school compared to its previous results.
It is written in using an “inverted triangle” approach appreciated by sub-editors, with non-essential information coming last, but here rounded off nicely with a final quote.
Word count: 298
An electronic copy of this story, subbed and published, can be found on the Crow’s website here:
http://www.royston-crow.co.uk/content/crow/news/story.aspx?brand=ROYWestOnline&category=News&tBrand=herts24&tCategory=newsroynew&itemid=WEED29%20Nov%202007%2012%3A29%3A59%3A267on-crow.co.uk/content/crow/news/story.aspx?brand=ROYWestOnline&category=News&tBrand=herts24&tCategory=newsroynew&itemid=WEED29%20Nov%202007%2012%3A29%3A59%3A267
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