Preston's St Stephen's CofE School is praised by Ofsted in latest report

St Stephen's CofE School on South Meadow Lane was visited by the educational watchbody on November 15/16 and was rated 'Good' overall.

The school, which caters to 341 pupils, was classed as good across the categories 'quality of education', 'behaviour and attitudes', and 'leadership and management', but its 'personal development' was classed as oustanding.

St Stephen's has been rated good in its last two full inspections- taking place in 2014 and 2010.

What did Ofsted say was particularly good about St Stephen's CofE School?

The report begins: “Pupils, including children in the early years, are proud to attend this friendly school where everyone is made to feel welcome. Pupils benefit from the kind and caring relationships that they have with staff and each other. This helps them to grow in confidence."

Describing how pupil's follow "the Stephen's Way", inspectors said that the school has high expectations for pupils’ achievement and behaviour which "pupils do their best to live up to".

Pupils are described as "polite, respectful, kind and gentle towards others" and they all, including SEND, achieve well. The curriculum is said to be "suitably broad and ambitious", teachers have received "high-quality" training and they use their "strong subject knowledge to explain new learning clearly to pupils" as well as to design activities that enable pupils to remember the intended curriculum.

Inspectors also praised the range of leadership opportunities available to pupils, the support for SEND, the priority placed on reading and the "well-thought-through programme of personal, social and health education that meets the diverse needs of pupils well."

What does St Stephen's CofE School need to improve on according to Ofsted?

Inspectors said: "In a small number of subjects, the school has not ensured that some teachers use assessment strategies to identify the gaps in pupils’ knowledge, including their understanding of some subject-specific vocabulary. This hinders some pupils when they come to apply this knowledge to more complex tasks. The school should ensure that, in these subjects, learning is designed so that pupils can revisit the knowledge that will be most useful for future learning."

What does the school say about their Ofsted report?

Headteacher, Helen Wright said: "We were delighted to achieve a good Ofsted report and with an outstanding judgement for Personal Development.   This is testament to the happy relationships we develop here at the school and our passion for developing  a high quality curriculum which is rooted in the key values of love and respect for one another. Our staff and governors work incredibly hard and we are thankful to our community who support us in the education of the children.