Ofsted: Luton school where youngsters get off to a strong start, celebrates boosting its rating from 'requires improvement' to 'good'

A Luton primary school is celebrating after impressing Ofsted inspectors with its progress.

Pirton Hill Primary School, which serves the Hockwell Ring area of Luton, was found to be good in all areas. In 2018 the school had been judged to ‘requires improvement’ and the inspectors were impressed with the progress that has been made since.

Lead inspector Richard Kueh, said children get off to a strong start from nursery. He said: “They quickly learn the vocabulary that leaders plan for them to know. Teachers use lively songs, traditional rhymes and memorable actions to help children remember important knowledge, such as number patterns. This particularly benefits some children with SEND, who remember key gestures and use them to communicate. In Nursery, teachers include sounds from the school’s phonics programme as part of their everyday teaching. This prepares children well for an ambitious phonics programme in Reception.

“Pupils’ ability to read well and their love of books are top priorities for leaders. Leaders, staff and pupils say that being a learner at Pirton Hill means being a reader. Leaders’ approach to promoting reading across the school has been successful. Leaders reward pupils’ reading accomplishments and inspire them to read more. Teachers teach the phonics programme well. In Reception and key stage 1, the books that teachers use to help pupils to learn to read are chosen well.”

He did however say more work was needed for pupils in key stage 2 who needed support with phonics.

Grace Sentamu-Baverstock, the Chair of Governors, said: “This is a result of lots of hard work and to make the rapid improvements during a pandemic, and with the higher standards now expected by Ofsted, is even more impressive.”

“Whilst our school is much more than just an Ofsted rating, I know that this will have an enormous positive impact on our children, staff, parents and local community.”

Headteacher Glenn Booth said it was a real team effort, something that the inspectors noted in the report. He was particularly pleased that the inspectors had recognised that “pupils’ ability to read well and their love of books are top priorities for leaders” and “across the school, pupils have turned leaders’ routines into good habits” as these are both key skills for being successful learners – both in primary school and beyond.