Colchester school praised by inspectors for supporting pupil wellbeing

Winning people over so they buy in to a way of thinking and asking staff to embrace change as a way of moving forward takes perseverance, support and, above all else, a vision of what you want to achieve.

When Rob Leach took over as headteacher of Willow Brook Primary School in in Colchester in May last year, he says there was plenty of work to do.

Overall, the school was not ostensibly in a particularly bad way: it still had a good rating from Ofsted, the education watchdog, although that conclusion had been made following an inspection which took place nearly six years ago.

Time waits for no man, however, and education is expected to move with the times so children are equipped to thrive in a world which would have been unrecognisable to their teachers and parents 20 to 30 years ago.

Throw in the after-effects of Covid-enforced home learning and the additional pressures of teacher strikes, it is likely that headteachers of most schools today would say they have their work cut out.

So it was for Mr Leach last spring, when the newly-arrived head identified teaching quality and reading resources as the two tenets which needed bolstering if Willow Brook Primary School – which is part of athe multi-academy trust TKAT – was to maintain its good rating.

Ofsted inspectors visited the school over two days in November, and a report was subsequently published last month.

Officials reach a conclusion based on five key areas: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management and early years provision.

Willow Brook School was rated as having good standards in all these areas, which is the second highest out of four possible ratings.

The opening line of the Ofsted report, which states the school is at the heart of community, sets the tone for what is undoubtedly an encouraging report.

Inspectors noted a newly-revised curriculum, staff’s high expectations of pupils, and the enjoyment which pupils show in coming to school.

Teachers were also described as being ‘galvanised’ so they can strive towards a high quality of education.

Understandably pleased with the inspection result, Mr Leach said he had been supported from the TKAT multi-academy trust to enact the change he felt was needed at the school.

He said: “The school needed to change – I wasn’t daunted by [the challenge].

“There was definite need for change and the parents have welcomed the changes that have been made.

“Distilling everything down to the quality of teaching and learning in the curriculum that’s being taught – that underpins everything.

“If the children are excited and enthused and find the day meaningful and purposeful, all the other elements of the school improve."

Reflecting on the past nine months, Mr Leach described the school has having gone through a transitional period.

“The report kind of reflects the change we’ve put into the school,” he said.

“I think from the school’s position, we knew how hard we’d been working, and all the teachers were aware of the recent changes we’d put in.

“They’ve made the experience of the pupils more enjoyable, and [the pupils] are all learning better.”

Pressures on teachers in the current climate are well-known, and the level of morale throughout the industry has been affected over years of austerity by real term pay cuts and the impact on school budgets.

But chief among many teachers’ concerns is the resources available to them, and it’s something which Mr Leach has worked to address.

He said: “One of the very first things I did was have a meeting with all the staff asking them about their workload; previously, they were spending weekends and evenings and off days planning and working.

“The schemes the school purchased and adopted was done in order to support the staff and take off the pressure of all that planning because a lot of the resources were already in place.

“That offset a great deal of time for the teachers so they weren’t having to look for planning or write lesson plans from scratch, because it was already done.

“All they needed to do was adapt it and make it fit for their class, which is very different from building and writing a curriculum for themselves, essentially.”

The success of the new curriculum, in particular, is reflected in the Ofsted report.

Pupils, for example, enjoy learning about different religions and cultures and are encouraged to show respect to those who have different beliefs.

A strategy known as ‘a champion of every child’ was also noticed by inspectors as supporting pupils’ social and emotional wellbeing.

The success of November’s inspection, of course, means the school won’t be inspected for a few years.

By the time Ofsted next visit, however, one suspects the school will have made even greater strides.