CHILDREN, staff and parents at a village school not far outside York are celebrating after an inspection that's been a long time coming.
It's been 14 years since Warthill School in Ryedale was inspected and back then they were judged as 'outstanding'.
Now the school, which has 37 pupils, has been judged good with outstanding features, and staff are delighted.
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Part of the reason for the long gap between inspections is that, under the old framework, schools judged to be outstanding didn't have to be reispected unless there was a major change of some kind.
Beverley Pawson, head teacher of Sand Hutton and Warthill Federated Schools said: "Warthill was last inspected 14 years ago under a very different inspection framework. The current framework is a very exacting process with a safeguarding and curriculum focus.
"Small schools face challenges in the construction of a broad and balanced curriculum which are more easily overcome where there are single year group only classes. However, the report recognises the success school has had in achieving its ambitious curriculum.
"While inspectors speak to staff and governors, they draw their conclusions regarding the efficacy of the school predominately from the answers children give to their wide range of questions."
One of the areas judged to be 'outstanding' was Early Years.
Inspectors said: "Early years staff have exceptional knowledge about child development.
They manage the different needs of the children well. Children are highly engaged because the activities meet their needs. Adults skilfully model language for the
children to improve their communication skills. Children in early years work and play with older pupils. This helps to improve their personal, social and emotional
development. Pupils know how to stay physically and mentally healthy, for example by eating a balanced diet, sleeping well and drinking water."
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Another strength is behaviour where inspectors found: "Staff have high expectations of pupils. Pupils behaviour in lessons and around school is consistently calm and orderly. Pupils know what bullying is. They give examples of incidents of falling out that they know are not bullying. They are confident that if bullying happe ns adults will sort it out."
When it came to what the school could improve, they said: "Subjects such as art, music and modern foreign languages need further development. In these subjects, leaders have not sufficiently identified the small steps of learning that pupils need to complete in order to meet the intended outcomes.
"This means that it is not clear how a sequence of lessons develops pupils knowledge and skills. Teachers engage in professional dialogue with each other about pupils achievements in the wider curriculum. However, this does not check on pupils progress in each unit to subsequently influence curriculum thinking."
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