Headteacher's pride after Ofsted praise

St Robert Southwell, in Roffey, was visited by inspector Lucy English on October 10 – its first inspection since 2013.In her report, Ms English told headteacher James Field pupils were “very happy” at the school and added: “They are confident and proud of the progress they are making.”She praised Mr Field and his team for maintaining and building on the strengths identified in the previous inspection. She was also impressed with the balance of “high academic standards with high quality pastoral care” the school achieved.Ms English said: “This care for the whole child permeates the school and is shared by all adults who are part of it. It is telling that many parents described the school as a ‘family’.”Her findings were welcomed by Mr Field, who said: “I’m incredibly proud of the report and am pleased that the hard work of the whole school community has been recognised.

"I'm pleased that the report highlights that as well as being a very successful school academically we care about the well being of the whole child and support them in becoming good citizens of modern society.

"I'm also pleased that the behaviour of the children was cited as a clear strength."

Only a few points were highlighted for further work.These ‘next steps’ included the need for school leaders to ensure teachers continued to challenge pupils to achieve the highest standards, especially in writing, and for governors to continue to develop their skills so that the could hold leaders more closely to account.Mr Field said: “We are working harder to make the school better all the time and will be working hard on the next steps. “A lot of our focus this year will be on moving the school from six classes to seven and building a new multi-purpose building to support learning and the Catholic life of the school.

"We had a very well attended open day and we were very lucky to have the Ofsted report to show the prospective parents."