Portslade primary school maintains good Ofsted rating

A Portslade primary school has maintained its ‘good’ rating by Ofsted after its latest inspection.

St Nicolas Church of England Primary School and Nursery was again rated good for all five areas of assessment by the school regulator.

The report says the school is “moving from strength to strength” and commend their approach to reading as “the bedrock of the curriculum.”

The headteacher welcomed the report but criticised the inspections as a “huge driver of stress and workload” for schools.

Headteacher Andy Richbell said: “I am really proud of our children, families, governors and staff team.

“I am also grateful to our Ofsted team who were very experienced, professional, thorough and appropriately challenging.

“We have earned and deserve this really good report.

“However, it is difficult to be too excited because Ofsted are a huge driver of stress and workload in schools and there are better ways to hold us accountable and drive school improvement.”

The inspectors commented on pupils’ attendance as an area for improvement and said that despite actions to improve this, some pupils miss out on learning.

The report states: “Leaders, governors and staff have worked effectively to bring about rapid improvements and address the weaknesses identified in the previous inspection.

“Staff are overwhelmingly positive about the support and consideration they get from leaders.

“They value the ongoing training they have received to bring about the improvements to the curriculum.

“Governors challenge leaders about the impact of their actions and are clear what still needs to improve.

“St Nicolas is a school that is now moving from strength to strength.”

You can read the full report by Ofsted here: https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50204441