'Failing' school's success; CANNOCK: Special measures pay off.Byline: By Tony Collins PARENTS, pupils and staff at a Staffordshire Staffordshire (stăf`ərdshĭr), county (1991 pop. 1,020,300), 1,157 sq mi (2,997 sq km), W central England. The county seat is Stafford. The terrain is gently undulating except for a district of rugged moorlands in the north. primary school are rejoicing after it officially shed its previous "failing" tag. Chadsmoor CE Junior in Burns Street, Chadsmoor, Cannock Cannock (kăn`ək), city (1991 pop. 54,003), Staffordshire, W central England. It was a mining town dependent upon the rich coal deposits of Cannock Chase until most of the mines closed in the mid-1990s. , has improved so much over the last two years that it no longer requires special measures Special measures is a status applied by Ofsted, the schools inspection agency, to schools in England when it considers that they fail to supply an acceptable level of education and appear to lack the leadership capacity necessary to secure improvements. . The 230-pupil school was judged "inadequate" by education watchdogs Ofsted following their inspection in December 2005. But government inspectors who returned to the school last month ruled that Chadsmoor's overall effectiveness is now satisfactory. They said: "Aided by good support from the local authority, all the weaknesses from that inspection have now been addressed." Head teacher Barbara Herszenhor and senior staff have brought in rigorous systems for monitoring and evaluating the performance of the school. These have enabled the leadership of the school to prioritise Verb 1. prioritise - assign a priority to; "we have too many things to do and must prioritize" prioritize grade, rate, rank, place, range, order - assign a rank or rating to; "how would you rank these students?"; "The restaurant is rated highly in the food the areas for development and to gauge their success in dealing with them. Ofsted said the performance of the school is now "significantly better". Teachers assess pupils' work well and ensure all pupils are aware of their current National Curriculum levels and have good guidance on how they might improve further. Teaching and learning are now good because of the sustained efforts of good leadership and management and the commitment of all the staff to do better. But the report added that the impact of good teaching and learning was relatively recent and so for older pupils, who were hindered by some unsatisfactory teaching in the past, overall achievement from joining to leaving the school is only satisfactory. The school's motto of "enjoying and learning together" sums up how life is in this happy and caring community. Together with strong spiritual direction, good care, guidance and support ensure pupils' personal development is good. Ofsted concluded: "The school now has good capacity to continue to improve without external support." |
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