St Mary’s Church of England Academy, in Mildenhall, is graded ‘requires improvement’ by Ofsted – but its principal says the school is ‘proud’ of what it’s achieved

A headteacher has spoken of her passionate belief in her school after an Ofsted inspection within 12 months of her headship downgraded its rating to ‘requires improvement’.

Roxanne Rutter, principal of St Mary’s Church of England Academy, in Mildenhall, spoke of her pride in the positive changes happening at her primary school as it continues on its improvement journey.

Ofsted carried out an inspection at the school, in Trinity Avenue, in May, judging it ‘requires improvement’ overall and in the areas of quality of education, leadership and management and early years provision.

Pupils’ behaviour and attitudes and personal development were deemed ‘good’. The school was previously rated ‘good’ by Ofsted, in 2017.

Mrs Rutter, who had worked at St Mary’s for many years before becoming headteacher in September, believes the timing of the Ofsted inspection was due to the school pulling out of the process of joining a small multi-academy trust.

Ofsted said it didn’t comment on individual schools. However, according to the inspection handbook, if a school’s most recent Ofsted grade is good, but it previously had an ungraded inspection that recommended its next inspection be a graded one, then that next inspection will take place within one to two years. This was the case with St Mary’s following its ungraded March 2023 inspection.

Mrs Rutter said the school had ‘wanted to bring it on’ in terms of the inspection, which did celebrate behaviour and personal development and ‘green shoots’.

She said Ofsted felt the school did have a good handle on what it needed to do – it just needed time.

Mrs Rutter said: “We rode it out and we thought, ‘you know what, we are really happy with our school’.

“We know what we need to do. We have got a really good senior leadership team now and really solid staff. We know what we need to do to improve and we are really determined to do it.

“We have got parents on board with us, staff on board with us. We just want to get on with the job.”

She added: “We just think we are proud of what we have done at the moment.”

She said the Ofsted judgement on paper made the school look worse than it is, adding the inspectors were using previous Year 6 data under the previous leadership team.

Mrs Rutter said: “We would like our current SATs data, which shows a massive improvement, to be celebrated.”

She spoke of change to the school’s leadership team and also a ‘shift in culture’, adding ‘everyone is just happier here’.

“We know we have got to work hard and everyone is committed to it,” she said.

The Ofsted report said: “Leaders and those responsible for governance have recognised that the school needed to improve.

“They have put in place clear plans to address this, while at the same time being considerate of staff’s workload and well-being. These plans are showing early signs of impact.”

The report said pupils were happy, safe and there were many opportunities for them to pursue their interests.

They now study a full range of subjects, and staff adapt learning effectively for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). “Consequently, they learn more successfully than many of their peers”, the report added.

Ofsted also said the school had made ‘significant’ improvements to pupils’ behaviour recently and had put in place lots of additional support, such as counselling, emotional literacy and therapy.

Mrs Rutter added: “I would like to get across how much I believe in this school and our community and how passionate I am about believing in our kids.

“We just needed to wrap everybody up and tell everybody they are capable and good enough and they can do it; everyone feels a bit more love and we believe in each other again and we have got that spirit back.

“It’s just such a wonderful place to work and our kids are incredible. Our families are like an army behind us.”

The school is looking to be part of a MAT, although a larger one, in the future.