Mansfield school rated 'good' by Ofsted inspectors

Samworth Church Academy has kept its rating of ‘good’ after it was inspected by the education watchdog. Inspector Nigel Boyd who visited the academy on Sherwood Hall Road, Mansfield, found that since its last inspection in 2015, “behaviour has improved and pupils make more progress in lessons as a result.”Principal Lisa McVeigh, who has been at the school since September, has according to Ofsted “brought a real sense of clarity to the school’.She said the school is “very pleased” by the result. She said: “We are not going to stop at the ‘good’ rating, we will strive to be the best we can. But we don’t want to become a different school to tick off Ofsted’s boxes, we need to keep our vision.”The school’s vision is to encourage students to ‘be the best they can be.’ In the last inspection, inspectors asked the school to ensure that pupils are provided with a greater challenge in lessons. During the inspection, Mr Boyd found that the majority of pupils who responded to a pupil survey said that they feel challenged in all or most lessons. However, Mr Boyd also found that pupil attendance was lower than the national average some subjects were “underachieving”. The subjects include English, science, languages and humanities. However, there has been progress in maths results, which Mrs McVeigh says the school is “proud of.” Attendance at the school has been made a priority improvement by Ofsted as “pupils’ attendance has been below the national average and persistent absenteeism (pupils with attendance lower than 90 per cent) is significantly higher than seen nationally”.Mr Boyd said: “The pupils’ with the lowest attendance often have special educational needs and or disabilities or are disadvantaged. The school has introduced a wide range of strategies to tackle poor attendance but to date, these have had a limited impact.” Mrs McVeigh said: “We have been trying to improve attendance, our actions combating it are new and need time in order to work with the families.”