Inspectors say Great Horton primary is now ‘good’

Education inspectors Ofsted have acknowledged the “outstanding” leadership of Hayley Marshall since she joined Southmere Primary School in Ewart Street, two years ago.

The school was plunged into the failing ‘special measures’ category following an inspection in September 2006. Ofsted officials returned to the school three weeks ago and judged its performance is judged to be good with outstanding features.

Inspector Steve Isherwood said of Miss Marshall: “With the support of the school community she has provided strong and purposeful leadership and has orchestrated a remarkable recovery in the school’s fortunes over the last three years.

“The impact of her high-quality work lies behind all aspects of the school’s improvement.”

Miss Marshall joined the school from Thackley primary. Since then Southmere has achieved Healthy Schools and Activemark awards. Last summer’s Sats exams saw pupils outperform district averages at level 4 in English and science.

Miss Marshall said: “It’s always nice to receive praise but without a good team behind you it is hard for improvements to happen so quickly. The team you work with enables you to be the best you can and the parents have really stuck with us.

“The biggest challenges facing the school when I came were raising standards and re-engaging with parents because that is important after being in special measures and when leadership changes.

“We worked to give pupils the best possible education we could in the core subjects. After that we have been developing the curriculum so that it meets the needs of our learners.”

According to the report, a more creative curriculum means all pupils, whatever their circumstances, make good progress. The school’s performance could improve, the report said, by accelerating progress in pupils’ writing skills and, despite the hard work of staff, too many holidays are taken by families during term time. Last year, 3.4 per cent of pupils were persistently absent.