Beckfoot Allerton Primary School making 'significant improvements'

Beckfoot Allerton Primary School and Nursery, in Garforth Street had a full inspection on October 18 and 19 this year.

New headteacher, Michelle Blanchard MBE, has radically changed the school’s fortunes in the last 12 months.

The Ofsted report said: “Following a period of turbulence, staff, parents and pupils all agree that new leaders have made significant and rapid improvements to the school.

“Leaders are now realising their vision, which builds on the values of ‘hard work, trust and responsibility’.”

Beckfoot Allerton Primary School and Nursery headteacher, Michelle Blanchard MBE, with pupils (Image: UGC)

Bullying is rare at the school and pupils are happy there.

Staff are also more skilled as a result of high-quality training, meaning students are now receiving a better quality of education than they previously were.

The report said: “Leaders know that they need more time to embed these changes to further improve some aspects of the curriculum.”

English and maths has been prioritised at the school, with precise steps to learning set out and teachers considering carefully how to help pupils learn.

The report said: “For example, pupils develop their ideas for writing by talking about them first.

“In mathematics, pupils use carefully chosen resources to check calculations.

“Pupils are building their confidence in these subjects.”

Beckfoot Allerton was rated 'requires improvement' by Ofsted, as it was back in 2019, but this time four of the five key categories were deemed to be 'good'.

Michelle Blanchard MBE, collecting her royal award (Image: UGC)

Ms Blanchard, who was awarded an MBE for her services to education in July and was the founding Principal of Dixons Music Primary, said: “I am pleased to see that the hard work our team has put into ensuring we are taking effective steps to drive improvement be recognised in this report.

“Working closely with our dedicated staff and our supportive Trust leaders, we have been able to make important and swift changes to our curriculum support, as well as expanding opportunities for our pupils to enable them to make the most out of their learning.

“I am looking forward to continuing to build on the foundations laid out in the report to ensure we continue on this important improvement journey.”

Shirley Watson, CEO of Beckfoot Trust – which the school is part of - said: “Michelle has been working tirelessly over the past 12 months to ensure the necessary improvements have been made at the school.

“I am so pleased to see the report reflect so clearly the hard work of her and the wider Senior Leadership Team to ensure they brought about this positive progress.

“At the Trust, we are incredibly confident that the school will build on the feedback in this report to continue on an upward trajectory.”