School is on top form

The overall effectiveness of John Hunt Infants’ School, Balderton, is outstanding, an Ofsted inspector has reported.

The school was judged outstanding in all but one of 27 judgments after Mr Geof Timms visited on December 13.

Mr Timms said: “This is an outstanding school.

“Staff have created a very caring but demanding ethos that is helping pupils achieve above average standards in reading writing and maths.

“This is the result of excellent leadership and outstanding teaching and learning.”

The report said the pupils’ spiritual, social, moral and cultural understanding was very well developed through a wide range of activities.

It said the behaviour in and out of classrooms was excellent and the pupils were a pleasure to talk to and to teach.

The report said the high level of basic skills the pupils achieved prepared them outstandingly well for their future education and life after school.

It said the school provided an outstanding curriculum that was further enhanced by excellent opportunities for a wide range of educational visits out of school.

The report said the school, which has 220 children aged three to seven, provided an outstanding level of care and support.

The inspector recommended that staff ensure that pupils, especially boys, had sufficient opportunities to write in English lessons and other subjects.

The report said the teaching and learning throughout the foundation stage was excellent and children were very settled and happy to start school, which resulted in them making excellent progress towards the learning goals.

The report said the outstanding aspects were directly related to the excellent leadership of the head.

It said Mrs June Braddow set a very clear direction for work and had very high expectations of pupils and staff.

The report said the school was not complacent and although standards were consistently above average, staff were continually looking for improvement.

It said the governing body provided an excellent level of support.

It said there was outstanding capacity for the school to maintain the high standards and improve even further.

Mrs Braddow also became the acting head of John Hunt Junior School, Balderton, after it was put in special measures last year for failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education.

There are plans to amalgamate the two schools.

Mrs Braddow said: “The children and staff have worked very hard.

“They are completely committed to what they are doing and they deserve to get that outstanding result.”

“In many ways it was not a surprise just a fitting recognition by Ofsted for the work that has been going on for many years.”