'Ambitious' staff boost Sutton Coldfield school rating as 'all aspects improve' - Ofsted

“The staff and leadership team have worked incredibly hard to ensure Town Junior School is a place where children feel happy, safe and listened-to and where they know they are cared for.”

An improving primary school in Sutton Coldfield has received praise for boosting its pupils’ expectations resulting in improved progress and results.

Town Junior School is now rated ‘good’ by Ofsted inspectors, jumping from its previous ‘requires improvement’ rating in September 2017.

The education watchdog had inspectors visit the Ebrook Road school in January and they said school governors and staff are ‘ambitious’ for all pupils. They have 'high expectations of what pupils can achieve,’ and ‘pupils rise to these expectations’, lead inspector Kerry Rochester said.

The school was praised for its teaching of core subjects, with the Ofsted report stating: “The reading, writing and mathematics curriculum is well-developed. As a result pupils are achieving well in these subjects.”

School trips and visitors ‘bring pupils’ learning to life’ with pupils said to be ‘happy and enjoy school’. The inspector stated: “They are polite, courteous and respectful to each other and staff.”

After the last inspection the school was criticised for not having high enough expectations of pupils and not setting tasks to ‘deepen pupils learning’. Pupils had previously ‘not made good progress in maths’, ‘progress in writing was slow’ in 2016 and ‘reading was slow’ in 2017.

Now inspectors said ‘all aspects of the school have improved’. “An ambitious curriculum prepares pupils well for life,” the report said, with the school ‘prioritising reading’ which pupils ‘enjoyed’. Pupil with special educational needs or disabilities  were ‘fully involved’ in lessons and had extra help when needed

Safeguarding was a ‘strength’ at the school, which has 238 pupils on its roll.

To improve further, the school was encouraged to boost its music, modern foreign languages and geography teaching, with teachers’ subject knowledge needing to be improved.

Headteacher, Adrienne Smith, said: “For Town Junior to now be judged as a ‘good’ school is thoroughly deserved and is recognition of all the hard work of staff, governors and our supportive families within the community.

“I am delighted for our children who now know they attend a good school, for parents who have entrusted us with their child’s education and the staff who have worked tirelessly to bring about this result.

“Our inspection was under the new Ofsted framework, which rightly places greater emphasis on the quality of education overall and endorses our approach to a connected wider curriculum. Achieving a good result in all areas also endorses the nurturing and inclusive ethos of Town Junior School that prepares our pupils for life as ‘thoughtful and responsible citizens’.

“This outcome also recognises all the improvements that have been made at the school since the last inspection in September 2017.

“It is also to be acknowledged that the links with the Learning Trust of Excellence, as well as being a member of the Plantsbrook Learning Trust, has contributed towards this good outcome in many ways, including subject specific training for teachers and leadership training for subject leaders.

“The staff and leadership team have worked incredibly hard to ensure that Town Junior School is a place where children feel happy, safe and listened-to and where they know they are cared for.”