In the autumn term of 2013, Rise Park Junior School was placed in Special Measures following an Ofsted inspection. The headteacher left and an Interim Headteacher (Zoe Sharman) was given the task of driving the school forward and responding positively and vigorously to the Ofsted findings and recommendations. The areas highlighted for improvement ranged from improving teaching and learning in Maths and English, to improving writing across all year groups, to incorporating more efficient behaviour systems and leadership and management throughout the school and governance.

Zoe contacted Novatia and we supported the school from February – July 2014, working with Zoe to make improvements in all areas highlighted by Ofsted as inadequate. Support work included;

• Writing a detailed Post Ofsted Action Plan – This addressed all 5 priority areas for action highlighted by Ofsted, with clear structured targets for each term, milestones, success criteria and monitoring systems in place – The quality of the work can be evidenced by the fact that the plan was commended by the Interim Executive Board (IEB) (who had replaced the Governing Body) in April 2014
• Drafting regular Post Ofsted updates for IEB meetings and also for reporting back to parents
• Assessing data throughout the school to drive forward improvement – this included;
  -    RAISE Online analysis
  -    Use and effectiveness of the Pupil Premium across all years
  -    Setting Equality Targets across the school for 2014-15

This work contributed to the school making good progress towards leaving special measures and was positively viewed by both Inspectors/IEB who replaced the Governors.