STAFF, governors, pupils and parents at a school in Walkhampton are celebrating after being rated ‘Good’ at a recent Ofsted inspection — a huge improvement from the ‘Requiring Improvement’ rating it received just two years ago.

Ofsted inspectors judged Lady Modiford’s CofE (VA) Primary School as being ‘Good’ in all areas. The new rating is a great achievement for the school, which has turned around its fortunes over the last two years after Ofsted declared it ‘Requiring Improvement’ at its 2014 inspection.

Part of the West Dartmoor Federation, Lady Modiford’s now joins the overall ‘Good’ Ofsted status of its ‘sister’ partner school, Meavy CofE Primary School, where behaviour and safety of pupils is also ‘Outstanding’.

Executive head of Lady Modiford’s and Meavy primary schools Gavin Hamilton was praised by Ofsted for ‘raising the expectations of teachers’, which in turn led to ‘better teaching’ and ‘improved pupils’ outcomes and attitudes’, creating a learning environment where the ‘teaching of reading is strong’ and ‘all pupils are challenged well’.

Mr Hamilton said: ‘The renewed success of the school has largely been down to the hard working team of teachers, support staff and governors we have across the federation. The continued support of our parents and the fantastic attitudes of our pupils have also been key to the turnaround for Lady Modiford’s.’

New staff appointments, monitoring systems and strong leadership throughout were said to have ‘improved the quality of teaching’, pre-empting ‘rapid improvements in the quality of teaching, learning and assessment and outcomes for children in a short space of time’. Staff members themselves had also said that the school had changed ‘immensely for the better’ with school leaders, teachers and support staff working across the West Dartmoor Federation to become a stronger team through the sharing of best practise.

Ofsted inspectors also praised Lady Modiford’s for its use of the local area of the moorland to explore and write across the curriculum, encouraging children to challenge themselves further. Pupils themselves said how ‘welcome’ they felt in school and how ‘quickly they had settled and made friends’, comments which were echoed strongly in the written comments of parents in Ofsted’s online parent survey.

Ofsted also found the curriculum to promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural learning well, where staff continually refined the curriculum to reflect the interests and needs of pupils and involve them in its development. This was a theme reflected in last year’s SIAMS report, which judged the distinctiveness and effectiveness of Lady Modiford’s as a Church of England school as ‘Good’. Its Christian ethos had a positive impact on pupils’ overall progress leading to good standards of achievement and positive behaviour.

Mr Hamilton added: ‘The federation is continuing the momentum of school improvement, working on its creative curriculum and using the beautiful environment of Dartmoor. We’re soon to start working with Edison Learning, specialists in school improvement strategies and support, which promises to be a very exciting development for the future of both schools.’