“St Peter’s C of E Junior School continues to be a ‘Good’ school.”
That’s the verdict of Ofsted Inspector Jayne Ashman – following her visit to Ruddington on 11th & 12th of January 2022. Receiving its first new rating for five years was a slightly tense time for Head Teacher Michael Bradley who only took up his ‘new’ post in January 2020. Mr Bradley succeeded a much loved predecessor, John Mapperley, who had been Head Teacher at St Peter’s for the previous 12 years.
However, despite the most difficult of times during the COVID-19 pandemic, the village school has once again been praised for its high standards of education and care. It has “a well considered curriculum” whilst being a place its pupils are proud to attend and feel safe in, with an exciting range of activities and lots of outdoor space where they can play and explore. The school is also judged to have a strong culture of safeguarding. “Pupils feel able to approach staff if they have worries or need help” says the Inspector.
Mr Bradley tells RUDDINGTON.info: “Following our recent Ofsted inspection, I am delighted that our report has now been published confirming that St Peter’s continues to be a ‘Good’ school. At St Peter’s we strive to ensure that every child is able to flourish. We aim to do this by providing an education for the ‘Head’ (ensuring our pupils achieve academic excellence), ‘Heart’ (developing character & wellbeing) and ‘Hands’ (instilling in our pupils the belief that they can make a difference). We are extremely proud that Ofsted recognises the impact of this approach and the well-rounded education that our pupils receive.”
He continues: “As always, we would like to thank our school community for their continued support. Many schools aspire to be excellent. But very few have all the elements required: fantastic children, supportive parents and dedicated staff. St Peter’s has all three in abundance.”
A couple of the Inspector’s negatives were that: “In a few subjects, pupils have insufficient opportunity to consolidate and apply their learning” and “Occasionally, teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve are not as high as they could be.”
Mr Bradley explains: “Over the past couple of years, we have put a lot of work into redesigning our curriculum and we are now at a stage where we are embedding this across the school. As a result, Ofsted agreed with us that ensuring our ‘well considered’ curriculum plans are consolidated in every subject should be our area for improvement. This has been part of our school development plan since September and we are well on the way to successfully meeting this target.”
In reaching her overwhelmingly positive verdict, after the two day tour, the Inspector also took into account he views of 14 members of staff, along with the 87 responses to Ofsted’s parent survey, ‘Ofsted Parent View’. “She was extremely impressed by the responses she received from the parent survey and told us that it was clear that the whole school community is engaged and invested in the school” adds My Bradley. “She said that it was very rare for 100% of parents to say they would recommend the school and we should be very proud of this – which we certainly are.”
Ms Ashman explains: “When we have judged a school to be ‘Good’ we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good. This is called a section 8 inspection of a good or outstanding school – because it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.”
Fingers crossed that he governors and staff at our Ruddington junior school can keep up the good work but now ‘relax’ a little – until the next one is due in January 2026!
You can read the Inspector’s full Ofsted Report on St Peter’s School >>HERE<<.
