Our recent excellent OfSTED report has rounded off a successful year of achievement in all spheres of education – with standards high, our Eco initiative in full swing, triumphant sports teams and enthusiastic musical productions.

The latest report from OfSTED, published on June 27th 2007, described Church of the Ascension Primary School as a school with “outstanding features”. The inspector also felt that “The school’s Christian ethos contributes significantly to the pupils’ excellent spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.”

The report praised the school for standards that are “well above average” and states that “the good progress that pupils make is the result of good quality teaching and learning”. Our “classrooms are interesting places and there is always a ‘buzz’ of enthusiasm”.

The most pleasing aspect of the report centred on the excellent behaviour of the children. The inspector gave a grade 1 for the personal development and well-being of the children. “The pupils’ outstanding personal development is shown in their friendly, relaxed and confident manner.” Our inspector was taken aback when pupils took the time to thank him for inspecting their school! He also encouraged the children to continue to guard and look after the environment, as part of their exciting Eco-school project.

We are delighted that OfSTED has recognised that pupils are “achieving well whilst enjoying a rich and exciting education.”

As we are an Anglican school we were also inspected under the Statutory Inspection of Anglican Schools (SIAS) framework in September 2007. The inspector concluded that:

“Church of the Ascension is an outstanding church school sustained by a clear and strong Christian vision. All stakeholders, including the wider community, have confidence in the school to deliver a very high quality of education.”

The inspector identified the following established strengths:

• Pupils demonstrate high achievement across a wide spectrum of learning and behaviour.

• Pupil’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is extremely well met due to the outstandingly strong Christian ethos that underpins everything in the school.

• Care and concern for others is a strong feature throughout the school.