July 6, 2015 4.54 pm This story is over 104 months old

Welbourn school receives improved Ofsted rating

Improvement: A Lincoln school previously described as requiring improvement has received a ‘good’ rating in a recent Ofsted inspection.

A school in the Lincoln area previously described as requiring improvement has received ‘good’ ratings across the board in a recent Ofsted inspection.

Sir William Robertson Academy in Welbourn, which became an academy in 2012, was praised for providing “good support for students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development” in the two day inspection on June 17-18.

The Ofsted inspection looked at all aspects of the school ranging from leadership and management; behaviour and safety of pupils; quality of teaching; achievement of pupils to its Sixth Form provision and found all areas to be ‘Good’.

Inspectors wrote: “The headteacher provides strong leadership and clear direction to staff, parents and students. He receives strong support from skilled senior leaders and an effective governing body.

“Students enjoy being at the academy and are completely safe when in it. Teachers have good subject knowledge. They teach with authority and enthusiasm. Lessons are engaging and enjoyable.”

The four inspectors added that the academy failed to achieve an ‘outstanding’ rating because the teachers did not always challenge Key Stage 3 pupils sufficiently or use questions effectively to deepen students’ learning.

Additional vocational courses would also need to be offered for the academy to achieve the highest rating in future inspections.

The results have been welcomed after previous criticisms in 2013 by Ofsted inspectors for its quality of teaching, leadership and sixth form facilities.

Mark Guest, headteacher at the school, said: “At a time when Ofsted continues to raise the bar, expecting more quite rightly from all schools, Sir William Robertson is improving its grading while others are slipping backwards.

“The positive judgement on the sixth form was particularly gratifying. The inspectors met with 15 of our current sixth form students – all of them were intending to go to university, and for all of them, they were the first generation of their family to do so.

“Our sixth form raises the sights and ambitions of our students, embodying the school ethos ‘aspire’ in very real terms.”