11/11/03 - St George's CE Primary School Ofsted Inspection

Staff, pupils and parents at St George’s CE Primary School in Barrow-in-Furness are celebrating this week after Ofsted Inspectors praised the school for their hard work and achievements.   

The Inspectors report said the school is a good school where most pupils achieve well and standards are still improving.  Teaching and learning are good and Headteacher, Elaine Kent, provides very good leadership and management of the school providing good value for money.  

Elaine Kent, Headteacher says

“The whole school community is delighted with the very good progress since the last Ofsted inspection.  We are very proud of the achievements of our pupils and the supportive relationship we have with our parents.  St George’s is a caring, happy school where everybody is committed to raising standards and encouraging all of our school community to take up every available opportunity offered to them.  We have high expectations for our children and ourselves and will continue to encourage them to do their very best at all times.”

Tom O’Brien, Chair of Governors says

“This report highlights all the good teaching and practice that goes on in the school and the effort made by staff, parents and Governors to bring this about.  We are also delighted that the Rainbow Room has achieved recognition for its work with pupils.”

The main findings of the report are:

• The headteacher provides very good leadership and management
• The governing body participates very actively in the development of the school
• All staff are very hard working and are very committed to continuing to raise standards in the school
• The quality of teaching and learning is good in the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 2 and pupils achieve well as a result of this
• Pupils’ care and welfare are very good. Very good use is made of the @Rainbow Room’ for pupils with emotional and social difficulties
• Pupils behaviour is good

The report also finds some areas that could be improved, these are:

• Raise standards in reading
• Continue the focus on improving writing
• Develop more opportunities for investigational work in Maths
• Increase attendance and improve punctuality of pupils
• Find ways of lessening the impact of high pupil mobility on standards
• Make sure that the achievement of boys and girls are equally good in all subjects

The school was last inspected in 2001 and has made very good improvement since then.  All key issued identified in the last inspection have been tackled successfully.  The Inspectors also found that the parents’ views of the school are very positive and are very pleased to see how the school is improving.