School praised for raising standards

Myddle CE Primary School, near Wem, was handed a notice to improve by following an Ofsted inspection in February. The school was told to improve teaching standards, pupil progress and its monitoring and evaluation procedures.

Following a monitoring inspection in October, where the school, which has 66 pupils aged from for to 11, achieved a rating of 'good', inspectors say it is making progress in addressing the issues and raising the pupils' achievement.

School bosses say the latest report reflects a more accurate picture of how the school is performing.

In his report, inspector Michael Smith said: "The quality of teaching and learning has improved so that now all teaching is at least good.

"Teachers are skilled at meeting the needs of the wide range of abilities within their classes.

"The school has improved the way in which it checks and records how well pupils are progressing. These records show that pupils make good progress in all years.

"Leaders have been very successful in bringing about improvements to the quality of teaching and raising achievement in mathematics."

The report adds: "In Key Stage 2, early results for the test in 2012 show that all pupils met, and many exceeded, the expected levels in reading, writing and mathematics."

Sue Dawson, headteacher, said: "We felt the original Ofsted report did not reflect the progress that we were making.

"The inspector did not seem to appreciate that the school was making good progress, but that due to the timing of the visit, that pupil progress would not be reflected fully until later in the school year.

"It was upsetting for staff and pupils to receive what we believed to be an unjust and negative report.

"We sincerely hope that the excellent results that were subsequently achieved and the recent good monitoring report assure the wider community that Myddle is indeed a good school."