St Albans free primary achieves good Ofsted report

An Ofsted inspector has praised Alban City School for continuously improving as it has increased in size, citing its good leadership and thorough safeguarding as its tools.

The school was last inspected in 2014, two years after opening, when it also achieved good.

Insp Tracy Fielding said: “Over time, you have responded to the areas for improvement identified at the previous inspection. You were tasked with continuing to raise standards in the quality of teaching and learning.

“Through thorough recruitment processes and precise monitoring, you have continued to maintain the quality of teaching and learning, which has resulted in pupils’ key stage one outcomes being above the national average in reading, writing and mathematics in both 2016 and 2017.”

A soft start approach to morning learning was also praised in the report - this is where children do introductory activities to kick start their day.

She added: “Maintaining pupils’ safety and well-being weaves through everything the school does.

“You have watertight procedures in place to ensure that pupils are kept safe.”

She said the next steps the school can take include giving pupils more opportunities to apply their writing skills across a range of subjects.

The inspector met the school head, spoke informally with pupils, assessed classrooms, looked at student work, and reviewed a parent questionnaire.

Co-headteacher at the school, Gilly Stray, said: “We are really pleased with the positive feedback that we received, it was a really successful outcome and it is testament to the hard work of the whole community - parents, teachers, governors, and pupils.

“We are really proud of what we have achieved so far and we are looking forward to building on it in the future.”

She described it as a remarkable achievement for a new school.

The school is lead by Gilly and her co-head, Janet Goddard. That partnership structure was introduced in January of this year.