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14
May
Ofsted grades Ripon primary three years after it required improvement
Ofsted inspectors have given their assessment of a Ripon primary school, three years after they said it required improvement.
Following their latest inspection of Holy Trinity Church of England Primary School, which they carried out in February, inspectors say the school meets the ‘expected standard’ in four of the seven areas assessed. Three areas still ‘need attention’.
New grading system
Since the school’s inspection in 2023, Ofsted has changed the way it expresses its findings. Previously, a school was assessed on four criteria: the quality of education; behaviour and attitudes; personal development; and leadership and management.
These were all of given one of four ratings: outstanding; good; requires improvement; or inadequate. The school was then given one of these ratings as an overall assessment.
For example, in 2023 Holy Trinity Primary was given ‘good’ in two areas and ‘requires improvement’ in two areas, and its overall rating was ‘requires improvement’.
That system was replaced in September 2024, and a school is now assessed in seven areas: achievement; attendance and behaviour; curriculum and teaching; early years; inclusion; leadership and governance; and personal development and wellbeing.
Each of these is given one of five ratings: 'exceptional'; 'strong standard'; 'expected standard'; 'needs attention'; or 'urgent improvement', but no overall school rating is issued.
How Holy Trinity has progressed
Comparing the new criteria with the old, it appears that Holy Trinity has attained the ‘expected standard’ in the two areas where it was previously rated ‘good’: behaviour and personal development.
In the two areas it was previously rated ‘requires improvement’, teaching and leadership, it has been rated ‘needs attention’.
So these four criteria appear broadly the same.
In two of the new criteria, inclusion and early years, it meets the ‘expected standard’, and in one, achievement, it ‘needs attention’.
The school has undergone a significant change since the last inspection. Holy Trinity Church of England Nursery and Infant School merged with Holy Trinity Church of England Junior School on the junior school site.
The combined school, which has 224 pupils, also has a new headteacher, Marco Ramsay.
Mr Ramsay told us:
I was not the headteacher at the time of the inspection, having only taken up the post in April.
However, I do know that the staff and Trust are very proud of the positives that came out of the inspection, having only amalgamated into a single primary school last September.
As you will be aware, the majority of areas came out as ‘expected’, and as a school with a newly appointed headteacher, we are currently addressing the three areas that were graded ‘needs attention’.
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