Inspectors give school glowing report

When she received the school's latest Ofsted report, she went through it page by page marking all the good points with a fluorescent pink highlighter pen and any areas for improvement in green.

The result is 38 pages of bright fluorescent pink, making it literally a glowing report. Only the occasional line of green marks areas where the school can focus its efforts to improve still further.

A four-strong team of inspectors visited Earby Springfield Primary last November.

Inspector Robert Robinson's report described it as "a good school", and praised pupils' behaviour and attitude to work and the quality of teaching.

The report noted that parents held the school in high regard while the headteacher, deputy headteacher and governing body managed the school well.

Mr Robinson said pupils related well to one another and to their teachers, and that those who needed additional help were provided for well. Staff were also praised for working well together to enhance the learning opportunities for pupils.

Areas where improvement could be made included pupils' speaking skills, more focus on science in years three to six and higher standards in information and communication technology.

Listing 13 key aspects of school life, the report summary grades 11 of them as "good". In just two aspects, the school's performance is graded as "satisfactory", both relating to the provision of science subjects in years three to six. The report notes that not enough time is allocated in the curriculum to science, affecting pupils' levels of attainment in the subject. But it adds that the staff and governors have a strong commitment to improvement.

Crucially, the report notes that parents hold the school in high regard and there is an effective partnership between the school and the community it serves.

"The school provides parents with a very good range of high quality information that informs parents about what children are doing at school and the progress they are making."

Listing the things about the school that please the parents most, the report states: "Children enjoy school, behave well and make good progress because the teaching is good", and "the school helps children to become more mature and responsible".

For headteacher Wendy Tracey, the week-long inspection was a particularly stressful time.

From August to December last year she was seconded to a 400-pupil primary school in Nelson which had lost both its head and deputy head, with the proviso that she would be allowed to return to Earby for the week of the inspection. She paid tribute to her deputy at Earby, Wendy Dedman, and the team of teachers and support staff.

"Without the quality of the team here and the trust I have in them and in the governing body, I wouldn't have felt able to take on the job at Nelson."

Now Miss Tracey is delighted to be back at Earby full-time and thrilled with the Ofsted report.

"It's a good time to celebrate and there's a lot here for us to celebrate. There is nothing identified for improvement that we hadn't already identified within the school and would have been doing this year or next year anyway.

"The really important things to achieve are the things that the report says we've got right, like pupils' behaviour, attitude to school and relationships in school and with parents. These are the building blocks for a good school and when they are in place the rest is detail."

Miss Tracey was particularly pleased that inspectors recognised the school's work with pupils on the register of special educational needs.

Almost a quarter of the pupils at Earby are on the register and the school takes pride in tailoring the education it provides to pupils' individual needs.

Now the governors are busy preparing an action plan to address the areas for improvement highlighted by the report.