Getting Better All The Time

Date published: 04/02/2010

Springside Primary School has taken another crucial step along its journey to success.

The school has been removed from the “notice to improve” category following an Ofsted inspection just before Christmas.

In its latest inspection, Ofsted graded the school as satisfactory overall with many areas of good practice.

And its Early Years provision gained top marks in all areas, giving it an official grading of outstanding. “Parents and carers who wrote about the Early Years Foundation Stage had nothing but praise for the staff who work here; and rightly so,” said Ofsted.

Inspectors said the head teacher and governors had worked hard to move the school forward since the last inspection.

They said that pupils’ behaviour was good, that they had a good understanding of healthy lifestyles, and many took advantage of the school’s sports and clubs.

“Standards are now rising and pupils’ progress over time is broadly satisfactory,” said Ofsted. “The school’s provision for the care, guidance and support of pupils is good.

“Provision in the Early Years Foundation Stage is outstanding and, consequently, the outcomes that children achieve are excellent. They make particularly rapid progress in their acquisition of early reading and writing skills. Children are very happy, settled and very well looked after. Parents and carers speak very highly of the provision and appreciate the work of staff.”

Mrs Karen Murphy, head teacher at Springside, said: “We are delighted with the outcome of the inspection, and the school will now move from strength to strength. Our children deserve the very best in education and our staff continue to work extremely hard to raise standards in teaching and learning.

“This is an exciting time for Springside as work is now taking place with architects to plan for a major refurbishment and remodelling under the Primary Capital Investment Programme.”