A middle school is definitely heading in the right direction, its latest inspection has confirmed.
Gamlingay Village College (GVC) was deemed to be failing and put into special measures following an Ofsted inspection in February 2011.
In February this year it joined forces with Stratton Upper School in Biggleswade as part of the Stratton Education Trust – and this took it out of special measures because it was technically a new school.
Ofsted’s latest report states that the GVC “is making reasonable progress in raising standards for all pupils.”
Madeline Russell, chair of the governing body said: “All of us at the trust can be enormously proud of our achievements at Gamlingay.
“This is a fair and thorough report that accurately represents the improvements at GVC.
“As ever there are recommendations such as ensuring the very best teaching methods are shared across the college and indeed the trust but informally the inspectors recognised that this is already built into our future plans.”
The report says: “Standards are rising and pupils are making better progress than in the predecessor school.
“Improvements are most evident in Key Stage 2, in reading and in mathematics.”
Improvements in writing are slower, it added, but special writing days and other initiatives are addressing this.
Pupils are making at least satisfactory and often good progress in lessons generally. The quality of teaching has also improved.
In the leadership section the report adds: “Leadership has been strengthened and stabilised through the federation with the upper school.”
Pupil assessment is better than before.
To improve further staff will ask more questions that challenge and deepen pupils’ understanding.
Leaders will use data on pupil outcomes to hold others to account.