Thatcham primary school makes Ofsted progress

The visit on May 9 was the first monitoring inspection since the Skillman Drive school was judged to require improvement in January this year.
The inspection downgraded the school from its previous good rating in 2011, with the four assessment criteria of achievement of pupils, quality of teaching, behaviour and safety of pupils, and leadership and management all deemed to be requiring improvement.
The Ofsted rating system runs from outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate.
The monitoring inspection, carried out by Ofsted inspector Lisa Moore, found that headteacher Chris Davis, and governors had responded positively to the findings and were taking action to tackle areas highlighted for improvement.
These were accelerating pupils’ progress, improving behaviour in lessons and improving some elements of leadership.
Mrs Moore said that there was a sharp focus on improving the quality of teaching and raising expectations of pupils’ progress. She also found that the standard of teaching was improving, that pupils’ progress was being monitored more frequently and thoroughly and, as a result, standards in pupils reading had increased.
Changes to the school’s behaviour policy were also mentioned, with the inspection finding that there was a more consistent approach across the school to address poor behaviour while rewarding good behaviour.
Inspectors also said that the school had a detailed and focused plan on the key areas for improvement, but that it did not make clear what the governors’ role was in checking the school’s progress or explain how governors would challenge senior leaders over whether their actions would produce improvement.
The report noted that the recent addition of three new governors had further strengthened expertise.
Mr Davis said: “We were very pleased to receive the recognition so quickly after the original inspection. We are very confident that we can keep the momentum going and we are delighted to get such good recognition after such a short period of time.”
Following the February inspection, Mr Davis told the Newbury Weekly News that the school had a clear idea of what improvements needed to be made, which was part of the interview process when he applied for the role for headteacher last year, and he was confident it could become a good school again.
He said: “The inspection regulations have become stringent and have tightened up. Having arrived at the school, I was expecting that it would be much more of a challenge to retain the status.”