New head's pride as school is rated '˜good'

Bewbush Academy has maintained its 'good' rating from Ofsted

The school, in Dorsten Place, underwent a two-day inspection in November and the findings were published on January 8.

Inspector David Cousins and his team rated it ‘good’ in all areas, highlighting the progress made since Christine Dickens took the top role in April.

Along with senior leaders and school governors, Mrs Dickens was lauded as having “driven rapid improvements in the quality of education that pupils across the school receive.”

Mr Cousins added: “As a result, current pupils make strong progress in their learning, and the standards reached in the end of key stage tests have improved.”

Mrs Dickens said staff at The Bewbush Academy were “very proud” of the rating.

She added: “During the inspection there was a real feeling that the inspectors were trying to find out what makes The Bewbush Academy a very special place to learn.

“They recognised that the behaviour of our pupils is good and they come to school keen to learn.”

The report described the school as “a happy and friendly place where pupils get on well with others and develop good relationships with adults”.

The conduct of children in the classroom and on the playground was seen to be “good”, with instances of poor behaviour “rare”. Youngsters told the inspectors that bullying and name-calling were rare and they were confident adults would deal with any such problems well.

Disadvantaged pupils were found to be making better progress in reading, writing and maths, narrowing the attainment gap between them and their peers.

There were few areas highlighted in the report for further improvement, mainly relating to the assessment of children’s progress and the monitoring of the quality of teaching and learning – and the school showed they were already well in hand.

Mrs Dickens said: “The areas for improvement in the report are already on our development plan for the year and we will work hard to ensure we build on the work we’ve already started.

“All the staff at Bewbush work hard to make our school a welcoming and fun place and their hard work has resulted in the school being judged as ‘good’ in every area – we are all very proud!”