Dursley Primary School improves Ofsted rating as it looks to gain academy status (From Gazette Series)

Dursley Primary School receives "Good" rating from Ofsted as it looks to gain academy status

8:50am Thursday 21st March 2013 in News By Daniel Chipperfield

DURSLEY Primary School is reaping the rewards of its hard work after receiving a drastically improved Ofsted rating and is now looking to become an academy.

The Church of England school's sharp decline has been reversed after receiving a "good" rating from government inspectors who visited in February.

It is two levels higher than the lowest rating of "inadequate", which it received in December 2011.

Ofsted lead inspector Jane Neech said some parts of the new strategy at the school, which has 264 pupils enrolled, had been a "masterstroke".

"The headteacher has ‘lifted the lid’ on achievement and created a good school and he leads a dedicated staff team whose members aspire to drive forward further improvement," she said in her report published on March 14.

"The way teachers plan and mark pupils’ work in literacy and numeracy is exemplary and pupils are routinely challenged to improve their writing and mathematics."

Mrs Neech said that for the school to make the next step to the "outstanding" level, subjects other than English and maths needed to be improved on and teachers must ensure the pupils are fully focused on the work they are doing.

Headteacher Paul Daniels took over the running of the school in January 2012, soon after the earlier damning inspection.

"We are obviously delighted with the outcome and to see a lot of hard work by the whole school community come to fruition," said Mr Daniels.

"All the staff, both past and present, have worked tirelessly, always with the best interests of the children at heart. I feel very privileged to be leading staff and pupils that so obviously care about one another."

He said they were now starting to make the next "exciting" step of becoming an academy for next year.

Being an academy, Dursley Primary School would be free of Gloucestershire County Council control, able to adapt the national curriculum and vary teachers' pay and conditions, as well as vary the length of the school day, week and year.

"It gives us independence, and enables us to focus on what we think the issues for our school are and gives us the flexibility to meet the needs of our young children," said Mr Daniels.

"We are going to move on again and get even stronger and become the outstanding school which I believe we can be.