Ofsted says Wellingborough school is good with outstanding early years provision

St Barnabas Church of England School in Wellingborough was visited by inspectors last month and they have given the school an overall rating of good.

The school was scored as good in four areas - effectiveness of leadership and management; quality of teaching, learning and assessment; personal development, behaviour and welfare, and outcomes for pupils.

And the school’s early years provision was rated as outstanding.

This inspection is an improvement on the school’s previous rating and everyone at the school is delighted with the result.

Headteacher Sue Campbell said: “St Barnabas Church of England School in Wellingborough was inspected in September and the Ofsted report which has just been published grades us as a good school with an outstanding early years provision and says that the school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.

“We are delighted to have achieved such a positive outcome as the school was placed in ‘serious weaknesses’ at its last inspection in 2014.”

The report’s summary of key findings said the headteacher is ‘unwavering’ in her approach to school management, the governors are committed and highly ambitious for the school, and teaching is good.

They said children get off to a ‘flying start’ in the reception classes and the curriculum offers a wide range of learning experiences for pupils to broaden their horizons and to successfully promote their spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding.

They also found that parents are ‘overwhelmingly supportive’ of the school and that attendance is above average generally.

The school has 177 pupils aged four to seven on its roll.

It converted to an academy within the Peterborough Diocese Education Trust in 2014.

Its predecessor school had been judged to be inadequate.

The full report is available to read on the school’s website.