Top Marks for Pewsey Primary School – now on the way to Academy status

The children and staff are celebrating at Pewsey Primary School. 

Following three years of consistently improving SATS tests results, the school has been placed in the top four per cent of schools nationally.

The national performance tables for primary schools were collated up to the end of 2013 and showed Pewsey Primary outperformed all other local schools.

Because the school has met such high standards, the Governing Body has decided the school will become a Converter Academy.  

This decision follows a consultation with parents, staff and local agencies and has been approved by the Secretary of State.  In order to achieve this, the school had to show sustained improvement over three years.  

The school will be an academy from April 1.

Converter Academy status is designed for successful schools that want to benefit from the increased autonomy that academies are granted. They were introduced in 2010 as part of the coalition government’s plan to broaden the academy programme and eventually enable all schools to become academies.

Pewsey Primary is also included in the Top 100 most improved schools in England for 2010-2013 – a list to be published soon by Government Initiatives IQ which is an independent report on government initiatives and the public sector.  

The school has gone from strength to strength under the guidance of head teacher Nicola Gilbert who told Marlborough News Online: “What I am most pleased about is that a hundred per cent of the children reached or exceeded their potential in all areas measured in the year six tests in reading, writing and maths.”

Chair of Governors, Peter McGuigan, said: “This is really exciting news for the school.  We are very proud of the children and their achievements, as well as all the staff.”

“The value added statistics, which show how much progress each child has made whilst at the school, mean we are ranked second in the whole of Wiltshire.”

Talking about the change to academy status, Peter McGuigan said:  “This will mean no real difference for the children – for instance, the school name, uniform and the staff will not change and the school remains a state school.”

“What we firmly believe is that being an Academy will give the school the opportunity to decide the very best learning for our children rather than having to follow outside policies. And of course we will continue to teach to the national standards in reading, writing and maths.”