Pupils at Stoke Hill Junior are excited by their learning and achieve very high standards
Pupils at an Exeter junior school are excited by their work and achieve standards that are significantly above average, according to education inspectors.
They say progress in all year groups at Stoke Hill Junior is accelerating and teaching is consistently good with outstanding practice.
The vast majority of parents believe their child is well taught and making good progress, say the inspectors.
Three inspectors from the school standards agency, Ofsted, spent two days at Stoke Hill last month and their report has just been published.
It concludes that Stoke Hill is good across the board in all five key categories that were inspected – overall effectiveness, achievement of pupils, quality of teaching, behaviour and safety of pupils and leadership and management.
“Achievement is good and pupils of all abilities and all backgrounds make good progress in English and maths from the time they enter the school,” says lead inspector Mark Anderson.
“Most of the children have reached standards typical for their age when they join the school in Year 3 (and) reach significantly above average standards in English and maths when they leave Stoke Hill.
“Teaching is consistently good with some examples of outstanding practice.
“Teaching assistants and support staff are used well. Staff are conscientious and set themselves high standards,” he says.
“The head, senior leaders and the governors are wholly committed to maintaining and accelerating improvement in both achievement and the quality of teaching.”
To help this improvement, the school should increase the amount of outstanding teaching, he says.
Mr Anderson says pupils have good attitudes towards learning and are well mannered and very polite towards staff and visitors. They show respect and consideration for others, he says.
They say they are well cared for and feel safe at school at all times.
Attendance and punctuality are good and this is evidence of the pupils’ obvious enjoyment of their life at school.
“There is a strong sense of community in the school and relationships between staff and pupils are very good,” says Mr Anderson.
“There is a positive ethos and learning climate.
”The school offers an extremely wide range of high-quality extra-curricular clubs and activities.”
He says the school works closely with Stoke Hill Infants and the federation between the two schools has resulted in numerous improvements for both.
The governors have been instrumental in establishing the successful federation.
“They demonstrate a focused and unswerving commitment to further improving the educational experience that Stoke Hill offers all its pupils,” he says.
Stoke Hill Junior headteacher, Roy Souter, said: "We were especially pleased that the inspectors were so positive about the quality of teaching and the good progress all groups of children make in the school.
"We were also pleased that they could see how the federation with the infant school is having such a positive effect."
