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Church schools rated 'top of the class' by inspectors

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This is a text-only version of an article first published on Wednesday, 15 June 2016. Information shown on this page may no longer be current.

FIGURES show that nearly 80 per cent of Church of England schools in the Oxford Diocese are being classed as outstanding or good by OFSTED inspectors. And our schools are doing even better with 86 per cent being outstanding or good in the classifications carried out by SIAMS (Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools).

The national average for good or outstanding for Ofsted is 75 per cent. The Diocese has 282 schools including 18 academies and works in conjunction with nine local authorities: Bracknell, Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire, Reading, Slough, West Berkshire, Windsor & Maidenhead and Wokingham. Anne Davey, Director of Education for the Diocese, said: "I am delighted that so many of our schools are being given such good reports by both OFSTED and SIAMS inspectors.

It is testimony to the hard work of head teachers, teachers, governors and support staff, those who support them and of course the pupils themselves and the Diocesan Board of Education.

With more schools lined up to become academies we are committed to seeing standards increase further and will keep striving to ensure that every pupil in a Church of England School in this Diocese gets the chance to realise their full potential. "Polehampton CE Junior School in Twyford, Berkshire, is a school founded on the Christian values of caring for and looking out for others.

The school was classified as outstanding in both its recent SIAMS and OFSTED inspections.

She said: "Being the best you can be is a term that can be used by everyone.

SIAMS and OFSTED recognised that everyone was being the best that they can be. "Penny described the school's heritage, when Edward Polehampton was found as a child by the landlord of what was then the Rose and Crown pub and is now the the historic Chiswick House. "Villagers took him in and looked after him.

When he grew up he went to London and made his fortune and when he died he left money to Twyford to build a school for boys, where the vicar would be the teacher.

The school included a chapel. "Every year children perform a play, telling the story of Edward Polehampton and how the school was founded.

Each time the play is performed in an original way. "That ethos is where we have come from, we look out for one another and treat people how we would like to be treated and it does pervade through the whole school.

Christian values are very, very strong in this school.

The children are the first to recognise if another child or an adult is not living by those values and will do something about it.

It's a lovely place to work," Penny added.

Page last updated: Wednesday 15th June 2016 12:00 AM
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