Grace Mary Primary School in Oldbury has achieved the Inclusive School Award with Centre of Excellence status.
Support and Expertise
Grace Mary Primary School it is a larger than average school in Sandwell with 248 pupils on roll, including a 20 place Focused Provision ASD hub catering for very complex needs including non-verbal communication. The school also has a Jigsaw Group for catch up support in core subjects across the school. Consequently, it has double the average percentage of SEND pupils with much higher than average proportion of disadvantaged pupils.
Such is the school’s reputation for meeting additional needs that parents now travel from further afield to seek out their support and expertise with a number of staff also choosing to have their children attend.
The school is proactive and solution focussed on the face of this very wide spectrum of needs. It is constantly evolving and has a strong emphasis on research based CPD informing practice characterised by high expectation and ambition for every single child. This applies to all staff and is facilitated by performance management that includes individual research-based questions that need to be explored over time and fed back to colleagues in staff meetings.
This helps create autonomy, mastery and purpose in the staff team resulting in a shared vision, low staff turnover and valuable stability. In 2019 the school was rated Outstanding overall by Ofsted.
Wide Variety
There is a wide variety of clubs ranging from dance to cooking as well as those that address pupil interests such as Lego and Minecraft.
All pupils have exposure to 2 years of specialist lessons in both drumming and ukulele playing which lead on to after school performances for parents.
Governors and senior leaders are highly aware of wellbeing and the need to look after staff to ensure that they are well enough to look after pupils. This was particularly evident through Covid when staff surveys checked up on wellbeing and was fed back to Governors.
The school has two therapy dogs which are used to provide emotional support to pupils though their use is still developing.
Progress scores for the school are usually positive across all subjects however writing has been slightly negative for the first time this year in unofficial data largely as a result of the composition of the cohort together with the Covid legacy.
Our Assessor had a very busy but thoroughly enjoyable visit to the school which allowed them to make a significant number of recommendations for next steps however, a number are closely linked and will support each other. This does not reflect any deficit in practice but is more a reflection of their collective commitment to improvement and sustained growth.
Find out more about the IQM Inclusive School Award
If your school is interested in obtaining the IQM Inclusive School Award or you wish to talk to a member of the IQM team please telephone:
028 7127 7857 (9.00 am to 5.00 pm)
or email: [email protected] for further details.
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