Improvements being made at Thropton

A report on a monitoring visit by inspectors to Thropton Village First School last month declared that the parents were ‘overwhelmingly positive about the school, its leaders and the staff’.

It said that the school was ‘taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement’ following the inspection in December 2015.

The report also spoke of the number of changes in staff since that critical inspection which has seen two newly-qualified teachers, a teaching assistant and an office administrator join the team, while the school now also benefits from a number of other staff members which are shared with Rothbury’s Dr Thomlinson CE Middle School.

Liam Murtagh, executive headteacher of both schools, who was appointed to the post at Thropton a week before last year’s inspection, paid tribute to the work of the school’s new staff team.

“We are delighted that the Ofsted monitoring letter recognises the many steps the school has taken to further improve Thropton Village First School,” he said.

“We feel this report shows the impact of the stronger relationship between Thropton Village First School and Dr Thomlinson Middle School that we have put in place since December 2015.

“We believe that we are stronger together and we welcome further opportunities to share good practice.”

Sue Bolam, the school’s chairman of governors, who was also appointed following the Ofsted inspection, said: “As stated in the monitoring letter, our school is on a ‘journey of improvement’ and we are fully committed to ensuring that Thropton Village First School is recognised to be a good school by Ofsted. We have worked very closely with our parent body and we are very pleased that we have received such a positive endorsement of our work.

“This Ofsted monitoring letter states a clear direction for us to follow to ensure that the many improvements we have made to our school in the past year are further built upon.”

l Staff and children at Warkworth C E Primary School were delighted to receive a letter of congratulations from Nick Gibb MP, the Minister for School Standards, for outstanding achievement in the 2016 phonics screening check.

With 100 per cent of children reaching or exceeding the pass mark, the school is now in the top three per cent of all primary schools in the country.

Headteacher Jacqui Carrick said: “This achievement reflects the hard work of our children, staff and parental support. We are all very proud.”