Smiles all around for St Budeaux Junior School

Staff and pupils at St Budeaux Junior School are celebrating their latest Ofsted inspection report after inspectors judged them to be a ‘Good’ school. The progress the school has made since the last inspection particularly impressed the inspectors who noted that standards had significantly improved in the last two years and that all pupils now make good progress in all subjects.  Ofsted stated “the school is a calm and harmonious place where children grow and become increasingly mature and reliable”, “the school leadership team has worked tirelessly since the last inspection to develop a culture where all staff have high expectations of pupils’ behaviour and the standards they can reach. This has been achieved as a result of a carefully planned curriculum, which is underpinned by strong Christian values.” Head teacher Robin Jones said: “I’m extremely happy that all of the hard work and dedication by staff working to better the school has been recognized in this report. I am very proud of our whole school team who have worked so hard and been so dedicated to providing the best possible education for the children in our community.” Inspectors from Ofsted visited the school in January and observed lessons, as well as carrying out interviews with pupils, staff and parents as part of their inspection.  Not only did they praise the standard of learning, and the many opportunities for the development of social skills, independence and pupil self-confidence, but they were really pleased to see the school’s values, which underpin the curriculum, teach pupils lifelong learning skills and promote strong social, moral, spiritual and cultural development. The inspectors were particularly impressed with how fully the governors were involved in checking how well the school was doing and how they challenged school leaders to bring about further improvements in pupils’ achievement. Chair of Governors Rachel Cain said: “I am very happy that the hard work from everyone has been recognised and that Ofsted agree with the school team, that this is a good school.  We are now working to becoming an outstanding school.” Councillor Sue McDonald, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Public Health said: “What a great result for both staff and pupils at St Budeaux Junior School. I was particularly pleased to read in the report that along with their academic progress there are many opportunities for the development of social skills, independence and pupil self-confidence.  Well done to everyone at the school for their good result.”