I am delighted to inform you that the final Ofsted inspection report from our two-day section 8 inspection on 23^rd & 24^th May 2023 can be found here. The report will be available on the official Ofsted report website from Monday 10th July 2023.

The purpose of a section 8 inspection is to gauge whether a school continues to be ‘good’ as indicated in our previous report in September 2017, or to ascertain whether there is evidence to suggest a school is above or below its original grading.

It gives me great pleasure to share that Ofsted have confirmed that Holly Trees Primary School continues to be a good school. In our feedback meeting, the inspector remarked that the current Ofsted framework is much more stringent that the previous one, and in order to remain a ‘good’ school, a school has to have made significant improvements since its previous inspection.

I am particularly pleased that Ofsted recognised the journey of improvements made at Holly Trees Primary over the past five years. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our wonderful staff, leaders and governors who work tirelessly to maintain what is special about Holly Trees and to implement the positive changes that we have made.

We are very pleased that the hard work undertaken our whole school community has been recognised, including the comments regarding our work on high standards and expectations, the way in which we develop our children to be responsible and caring citizens, our ambitious curriculum ably delivered by skilled teaching staff, our extensive support for children with additional needs, our robust safeguarding procedures and our excellent Early Years provision.

As well as our many strengths, the report also outlines the actions needed to take the school further forward. What is very satisfying is that the next steps identified were already within our development plan prior to this inspection, and the recommendations are already being implemented.

I do hope that you take the time to read the inspection report in full as it represents a school that is not only good, but one that aims to improve further and with the children at the heart of its work.

I would also like to take the opportunity to thank our parents who consistently support the school with all we set out to achieve, and this has a huge impact on what we can accomplish as a school. Thank you as well to those parents and carers who spoke to the inspector, or who completed Ofsted’s online survey, ParentView. The inspector commented that he rarely encounters such glowing feedback from parents.

To close, I would like to say that Ofsted is only one aspect of how we measure our success – our true measure remains our children. Our children remain at the heart of all we do, and the report recognises how important they are to us. We strive to help all children to recognise their talents, build on their strengths, recognise where they may find something tricky and help them to have the skills to move forward from this. We strive to create caring, thoughtful and passionate pupils who are proud of themselves and the communities they live in, and we are pleased that Ofsted recognised this during the inspection. We have never, as a school, been driven by Ofsted grades, we just want to be the best school we can be for our children – and whilst Ofsted inspections will come and go – what will not change is our high expectations, our passion for learning and education, and our love for every single child in our school. I know that we have your support in the work we will continue to do together to ensure that Holly Trees Primary School is exceptional for all our pupils.

My thanks to you all again,

Mrs S.J.Meacher, Headteacher.

Click here to view our most recent Ofsted Report

If you would like to make any comment about the school, please use the link below to give your views on Parentview - this can be done at any time.

https://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/