School reaping the results of tailored learning

A headteacher said the key to good SATS results was to ensure lessons were tailored to suit the needs of her classes.

Mrs Claire Kent, head at the Mount Church of England primary, Newark, praised her staff and pupils after they gained good results in their reading, writing and maths assessments.

The Mount was the best performing in Newark and Balderton based on the progress its pupils made in reading and maths.

Pupils at the school had a progress score of 5.5 in reading, the fifth highest in the county, and 4.3 in maths, which was 16th out of 249 schools.

The scores are calculated by comparing the progress of a school’s pupils against those of similar pupils in schools across England.

In writing, the Mount’s progress score of 4.1 was second only to the Sir Donald Bailey Academy.

Mrs Kent said making sure lessons were tailored to the needs of pupils was one of the keys to success.

“We always make sure their lessons are in context and make them as realistic and useful as possible so they don’t just sit there and think ‘Why are we learning this?’ and ‘What’s the point of it?’” she said.

“We always try to put their writing into context because, in a digital world, there’s less formal writing than there used to be.

“We have done a great push on attendance and that is something we have been working on for a number of years.”

'We have a good ethos'

Mrs Kent said the attendance record for pupils who received a pupil premium was 98%, which was higher than the national average, 96%, of all students.

“The children enjoy being here,” she said.

“We have a good ethos and it is a great place to be. We focus on that more than the academic side. It is about making them feel safe and enjoying where they are.”

Mrs Kent said children were able to improve their reading, writing and maths skills across the whole curriculum, including in other lessons such as geography, history or science.

She was keen to show there were positives in education in Newark and Sherwood after it was ranked as the second-worst place in England for social mobility.

The Government’s State Of The Nation report was critical of all areas of education in the district, from early years provision to further education.

“Newark has had some quite negative press recently in terms of education,” Mrs Kent said.

“It is not all doom and gloom and there are positive things happening in Newark.”

Commenting on the SATS results, Mr Jeremy Reichelt, the school’s chairman of governors, said: “It shows the hard work that goes on from the pupils and all the staff here.

“A lot of the children come in with low starting points, but if they work hard at school they can reach their expectations and even better than expected progress.”

The MP for Newark, Mr Robert Jenrick, visited the school on Friday and answered questions from pupils.

He is with, left to right (back) Viktoria Szabo, 11, Dakota-Patricia Thompson Martin, 10, Riley Payne, 9, Samuel Hind, 9, and (front) Morgan Paterson, 10, Corey Day, 10, Joshua Joyce, 9, and Isaac Williams, 9.

Mr Jenrick plans to visit all schools in his constituency.