Gladstone Road Primary School in Scarborough shares improvements made following Ofsted report

Gladstone Road Primary School was rated ‘Requires Improvement’ following an inspection in December 2019.

In their report, published earlier this year, inspectors recognised that pupils “enjoy school life” and teachers “encourage pupils to be they best they can be”. However, the team of four also highlighted issues with reading and the support provided to pupils with special needs.

The report reads: “Leaders and teachers do not have a clear enough plan to teach the weakest readers to become fluent.” It adds: “Support plans are not specific enough to help staff to meet the needs of pupils with SEND. Consequently, these pupils do not achieve as well as they can.”

Headteacher Garry Johnson, who only took on the role in January, said the report was “fair” and that it highlighted areas of improvement that he and his staff had already identified and are now addressing.

In a letter to parents, Mr Johnson explained how reading is being improved through “targeted interventions” for identified children, the “re-deployment of support staff to facilitate in reading sessions” and “external support for phonics which includes staff training and coaching”.

For pupils with special needs, Mr Johnson said plans have been “completely redesigned” and are now being implemented. Measures to improve behaviour such as additional lunchtime clubs and “refreshed” behaviour incident reporting systems are also in place to address boisterous pupils.

Mr Johnson also pointed out how the school had experienced some “turbulence in staffing” in the past few years but said the school was now “stable”.

He added: “The amazing whole staff team have been working tirelessly to put all of these changes in place and I hope that [parents] are already beginning to notice real changes. We wholeheartedly want the best for every child and we are extremely grateful for all the support we receive day in day out from parents/carers.”