PEMBERLEY Academy has been judged as Good by OFSTED this month, which is the first formal inspection since the school opened in September 2015.

The 2 day inspection which judges primary schools across 5 keys areas being outcomes, Behaviour and welfare, quality of teaching, early years and leadership found that the Hodings road school has solidly met the criteria for being Good across all areas.

During the inspection which includes meetings with staff, parents, governors, lesson observations and scrutiny of policies and data the lead inspector observed that “the school is determined that pupils will succeed through a combination of family support, effective teaching by staff who feel valued and a central role in the local community.”

The quality of teaching was judged to be consistently good with the report citing the “recruitment of dedicated and skilled teachers” as a key driver behind the consistent delivery of high quality lessons, with the impact of this being high quality outcomes for children who “make increasing strong progress from their starting points” with consistent standards of high quality work evident in their books across all subjects.

In addition to the quality of teaching across the school and the subsequent outcomes the report also praises the school for looking after the welfare and behaviour of it’s children with what it calls “a strong culture of care” and that children are well looked after by the staff and that this was a “strength of the school.”

It was noted that the children behave “extremely well around the school with few exceptions” and that “Pupils are confident and extremely respectful”. The school also received high praise for it’s work with children that have special educational needs and those who are EAL and speak English as their second language.

“This is the first major milestone on our journey” said Headteacher Neil Coster “Having opened our doors 3 years ago with a building that wasn’t finished, limited resources and a huge number of challenges this is validation that everything we’ve done as a school community has been correct and it is gratifying that we now have an official validation of all of our hard work.”

“I personally see this judgement as a huge victory for the community of Harlow as much of what we’ve achieved has been done with local people at the forefront and it’s an advert for what the people of this town can achieve.”