As the schools returned from summer holidays, here’s a roundup of the best schools in Buckinghamshire according to Ofsted.
Since 2008, 45 schools in the county have received the highest ‘Outstanding’ stamp for the quality of education awarded by the watchdog Ofsted.
The ‘outstanding’ rating means all five key areas inspected, including pupils’ behaviour, personal development and leadership, are likely to be outstanding, and the school’s safeguarding is also effective.
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However, even the outstanding schools will have to go through future inspections – and this could be at any time and without notice.
Here are the names of the schools, who recently scored high.
Results for Waddesdon CofE school in Aylesbury were revealed in February 2022.
A parent said: “The school is a very special community.”
The secondary school was awarded ‘outstanding’ for quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management and its sixth-form provision.
Pupils and sixth formers “love coming here,” the Ofsted report said.
“There are warm relationships between staff and pupils and a range of support services. Older pupils support younger ones here. Any form of bullying or unkindness is not tolerated.”
Also located in Aylesbury, Chiltern Way Academy, a special education school, was rated outstanding in November last year.
The Ofsted inspectors recognised the good atmosphere of the school, saying “it is safe to be yourself.”
As part of its “innovative programme”, some teachers are recruited from Canada, Ofsted said.
Pupils at Chiltern Way Academy grow in every way academically, emotionally and socially, which makes “the impossible possible,” a parent said.
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Chalfont St Giles Junior School in the village of Chalfont St Giles got its result in February 2020 – just before the start of the first Covid lockdown.
The school’s rating went up from previous ‘good’ to outstanding thanks to its environment, where “staff go out of their way to develop and nurture pupils’ skills, talents and interests”.
One pupil told the inspectors: “‘Our teachers always want us to do our best.”
Apparently, bullying was “very rare”, but if it happens the “adults are quick to put a stop to it,” the report found.
Ofsted added: “Even though the school is doing very well, leaders are not complacent. Governors act as very good critical friends to leaders.”
In 2020, ‘outstanding’ rating was also given to Beaconsfield High School and The Pace Centre, an independent school in Aylesbury.
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