AN Ilminster school is ‘thrilled’ after its recent Ofsted report rated it as ‘good’ across all areas.

Swanmead Community School was inspected by education watchdogs over two days during February and has maintained its ‘good’ status.

Areas where the school excelled included leadership and management, and outcomes for pupils.

Swanmead was last assessed as being good all-round following an inspection in July 2014.

Mark Walker, headteacher, said: “This report certainly displays and celebrates the continued improvements of the school over recent years.

“We are thrilled with its contents and how all the positives and aspects to improve we self-evaluated about Swanmead were agreed with by a very experienced and rigorous inspection team.”

The report highlighted the positive opinion the school’s children have of Swanmead, saying they ‘speak positively about their school experience because they feel supported and valued’.

The report also makes reference to the headteacher’s impact as being ‘determined’ and that his ‘approach to improve the standards of education is succeeding’.

Mr Walker added: “The report highlighted a couple of areas for the school to work upon.

“These were already aspects the school were aware of and we are grateful to the inspection team for including them within the report.

“The school looks forward to involving all the school community in addressing these and continuing the high standards that are now very much associated with Swanmead Community School.”

Chard & Ilminster News:

The report highlighted a number of areas which needed improvement, which included some pockets of weak teaching, a need to set higher expectation of what pupils can do, and communication with parents and carers to inform them of their child’s progress and how they can support their child to improve.

On the quality of teaching, learning and assessment, the report said: “Pupils benefit from very positive relationships with staff because they are based on mutual respect.

“Teachers are keen to engage pupils with their learning and encourage participation.

“Pupils’ contributions to discussions are valued and they enjoy their learning as a result.

“Pupils now make better progress and achieve well, particularly in English and mathematics, as a result of teachers planning well and using time effectively in lessons.”

Mr Walker added: “The continued journey of improvement for this school is down to the unrivalled commitment and hard work of our staff team, the support we get from our parents and the community and the sheer brilliance of the young people that attend Swanmead – their enthusiasm, loyalty and infectiousness make it all worthwhile.”

For more, visit swanmeadschool.co.uk.