Pendle school's improvement praised by Ofsted

Staff and families at West Craven High School in Barnoldswick have welcomed the findings of a recent Ofsted monitoring visit which shows the school is continuing to go from strength to strength.

The school had been rated "inadequate" in an earlier Ofsted inspection, and new principal Tracy Foy vowed to turn the school when she was appointed in January last year.During the latest on-site visit, Ofsted inspectors reported that the school’s leadership has been strengthened at every level and that these leaders have established firm foundations on which they can continue to build and that this has given students, staff, parents and carers the confidence that the school is on the right trajectory of improvement.

Inspectors praised the strong culture of safeguarding in the school and the commitment of senior leaders to bringing about further improvements to the quality of education.

Principal Tracy Foy said: “We are delighted with the feedback we have received from the first monitoring visit as well as having the opportunity to discuss the work we have put in throughout the pandemic to support our children and their families.

“It was fantastic to hear them say that the developments we have put in place are helping to secure improvements to the quality of education for all of our children. We look forward to welcoming them back later this year to show them that we have progressed even further.”

Lynne Blomley, Pendle Education Trust’s executive principal for Secondary Education, said: “Our family of schools place huge importance on helping our students to develop a lifelong love of reading and it was pleasing that the inspectors highlighted the work we have done with students at West Craven to provide phonics support for those who find reading a struggle and that we dedicate time each day for students to read, continually developing their literacy skills.

Anita Ghidotti, chief executive of Pendle Education Trust, added: “I’d like to thank every member of our team who helped to show the inspectors how all of our hard work is helping to secure improvements to the quality of education for children at West Craven High School.

"The inspectors met with senior leaders, subject leaders, teachers and members of our Interim Executive Board, as well as hearing from a large number of parents and carers, and they all helped us to show Ofsted how we continue to work together to help the school to improve for the benefit of the children at West Craven.”