St Augustine’s RC Primary School, Coulby Newham in Middlesbrough was recently involved in a successful OFSTED Inspection and a three year review, by an assessor of Investors in People, to evaluate the School in order to qualify for its esteemed award.

The governors, staff, children and parents were delighted with the results of their very successful OFSTED Inspection in June 2007. They only had a one day Inspection and it was found that St Augustine’s School gives outstanding spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and successfully prepares pupils to be good citizens and for the next phase in their education. Pupils achieve very well and pupils’ outstanding personal development and wellbeing result from the School’s philosophy of care, which the Headteacher and staff foster to excellent effect. Pupils behave impeccably well in lessons and in the communal parts of the School. The Report went on to say that the Headteacher’s very effective leadership, clear direction, commitment and determination have sustained well above average standards and good achievement year-on-year. The School encourages a very positive climate for learning that all pupils thrive in and enjoy. Governors’ commitment and diligent participation ensure the School is well led, managed and administered.

They also had an extremely successful renewal of their Investors in People where it was found that they had no actions, so had no area for improvement. The assessor had found the School to be very good last time it was assessed, but this time the assessor was delighted to find that St Augustine’s School had made even more progress.

Some of the findings included:

• The whole School atmosphere is one of sharing and supporting so that the children can attain the highest standard they can
• Improvements are continually made to the way people are managed and developed
• The School invests a lot of time and money in all their staff and in particular the management team
• People feel that their managers are fair and excellent role models
• Learning and development needs are met in abundance
• People are encouraged to take ownership and responsibility by being involved in decision making
• Recent inspection results are good in the leadership and management area indicating the strength of leadership at top management level.

Everyone at St Augustine’s School is delighted with the findings of these two very important Reports. The Headteacher, Mrs Heather Barber, says that it is lovely to have confirmed, by outside sources, that the School continues to be highly successful and a place where the children enjoy and thrive on their efforts. The School is extremely fortunate to have such a dedicated staff who are ably supported by enthusiastic parents.