SINCE moving out of special measures Cutteslowe Primary School has been going from strength to strength.

Headteacher John Gray said things had come a long way in the past few years at the 320-pupil school, which is currently ranked ‘good’ by school watchdog Ofsted.

The school, a member of the River Learning Trust group of academies, has been praised for its level of parent satisfaction and the happiness and behaviour of students.

Mr Gray said: “We’ve got a very hard working team that really want the best for our children and they will go above and beyond what other schools may do.

“It is a lot about how we work with families.

“The part of our last Ofsted report we were happiest with was the parent participation.

“It was so positive and I cannot think of another school like that.

“We have stay-and-learn sessions where parents can come and take part in lessons or we have parents come in and do maths lessons for themselves.

“We do it to help with learning because things are very different in schools than when parents were pupils.”

The school has recently set up a bank in partnership with HSBC that allows pupils to manage money and gain experience of banking as well as develop skills such as maths.

Youngsters also have the chance to learn a range of musical instruments, with 45 currently taking classes in violin.

Last week 60 pupils travelled to the O2 Arena in London to sing in the Young Voices’ Concert.

Mr Gray said: “We are trying to do things with a real purpose.

“We ask the children what they do know, don’t know and what they would like to know – so they drive the curriculum.

“We’ve got chickens in our midst and the children take turns looking after them. We’ve got a forest school where children can do science experiments, such as melting chocolate.

“Doing things with a purpose strengthens children’s understanding.”

The school’s membership of the River Learning Trust allows it to benefit from links with The Cherwell School, Tower Hill Primary School and Wolvercote Primary School, as well as Oxfordshire Teacher Training.

Mr Gray said: “All our children, as long as they live in the catchment area, can go to The Cherwell School, which is rated ‘outstanding.’ “The fact we are linked to The Cherwell School has changed the perception of us in the community.

“We also want to look at how we develop IT across the school and how that is used to enhance learning and look at the rigours of the curriculum and communicate that to parents. We want try to link with industry more, such as with HSBC, and our plea to industry is to get more in contact with our primary school because the doors are always open.”

WHAT OFSTED SAID:

Cutteslowe Primary School was inspected by Ofsted in March 2015 for the first time since it became an academy.

Inspectors Jenny Batelen, Peter Thrussell and David Shears ranked it ‘good’ in all categories and praised the level of progress made by pupils across the school.

Pupils were said to be well behaved and the inspectors said they showed respect for each other and for adults.

They were also said to feel safe and governors were deemed to know the school well.

The inspectors highlighted the way in which parents spoke highly of the support their children were given and that pupils felt safe.

Some areas for improvement were also earmarked, such as work sometimes being too easy for some pupils and teachers not always been quick enough to identify when pupils were not doing as well as they could in class.