Spalding Academy rated 'Good' by Ofsted
Staff, governors and pupils at Spalding Academy are celebrating after an Ofsted report released today (Wednesday) rated the school as 'Good' across the board.
And delighted executive head teacher Lucy Conley says the journey to become 'Oustanding' will start straight away.
Inspectors visited the school on June 4 and 5 and rated it 'Good' for overall effectiveness, leadership and management, quality of teaching, learning and assessment, personal development, behaviour and welfare and outcomes for pupils.
The report said Mrs Conley and other senior leaders provide clear direction and strong leadership and that the school has improved rapidly since its relaunch in September 2016.
Previously called the Sir John Gleed School, it has been dogged by years of disappointing reports and inspectors had rated the new Academy 'inadequate' after visiting just weeks after the relaunch.
The new report says school leaders and those responsible for governance know their school well, have taken decisive and effective action to improve the quality of teaching and the progress pupils make has improved, particularly in key stage 4.
Trustees are knowledgeable and dedicated and the school benefits from the opportunities provided by working as part of a trust.
Pupils receive good advice and support and their behaviour is a strength of the school as they are polite and enthusiastic and display good attitudes to learning. Bullying or disruptive behaviour is very rare and the few instances are dealt with effectively by staff.
Pupils’ attendance is good and contributes to their strong progress.
To improve further, the report says the school must set clear milestones, ensure that teaching enables pupils to secure consistently good progress, provide appropriate challenges for pupils, implement effective strategies to enable boys to match the stronger progress made by girls and develop pupils’ ability to apply a wider range of literacy skills across the curriculum.
Delighted head Mrs Conley said: "The South Lincolnshire Academies Trust has been responsible for leading Spalding Academy since September 2016 and during this time there has been a great deal of work put in by the senior leadership team and staff in the school and across the Trust in order to improve the education for our young people.
"The 'Good' outcome for Spalding Academy is a tremendous achievement that the whole school community truly deserves. This report is fantastic news for the Spalding community and brings the official recognition that there is now a good non-selective school option for parents in the town.
"I would like to congratulate all of our pupils for the way in which they conducted themselves during the inspection. The inspectors experienced first-hand pupils’ good behaviour. This is something we are very proud of.
"I would like to also thank parents for their continued support and contribution to the school and throughout the inspection process. I am now very excited for the opportunity to continue to lead Spalding Academy as we aspire to be outstanding.”
Chair of Governors Will Hawkins added. “This recognition from Ofsted is well deserved. Mrs Conley has shown great leadership qualities in securing this positive outcome and all staff, pupils, parents and governors can be rightly proud of Spalding Academy."
The Academy will be planning a celebration event for the pupils and teachers in the near future.
