Longcroft School Celebrates Amazing Turnaround

An East Riding school is celebrating an amazing turn around which has taken its Ofsted rankings from ‘inadequate’ to ‘good’ in less than a year.

Only 11 months after being given a notice to improve by Ofsted, Longcroft School in Beverley has now been judged to be good in all four key areas – achievement, teaching quality, leadership and management, and behaviour and safety.

The speed of the improvement is a record for an East Riding school.

Headteacher Ian O’Donnell, who has been at the school for just 18 months, said today: “When I took up the post I was confident that Longcroft could be a good or better school and we’ve done it.”

Mr O’Donnell described the achievement as ‘the proudest moment of my professional life’.

He added: “Following the inspection of April 2012, I assured our students and parents that we would work tirelessly on improving the quality of teaching. My colleagues dedicated themselves to this task and I am delighted for them that their hard work has been recognised.

“Our students have played their part too. They take pride in their learning and in the increased success they are now having. Our students want to and expect to make good or better progress, which is wonderful to see. We are really proud of them.

“Clearly we are all celebrating this outcome, but our resolve to continually improve remains strong.”

The report says that Longcroft School is a good school with very strong leadership, that students are making increasingly good progress and teaching has improved rapidly. It says the arrival of the headteacher provided a catalyst for change and the governing body is monitoring the school’s performance extremely well.

The inspector also says that East Riding of Yorkshire Council supports the school extremely well.

Councillor Julie Abraham, the council’s portfolio holder for children, young people and local authority schools, said: “Thanks to the vision and determination of Mr O’Donnell from the day he was appointed to the school, his leadership team, the staff and his governors, Longcroft School is now judged where it should be and I am extremely pleased at the rate that change has so successfully been brought about.

“I am confident that these improvements are sustainable in the longer term and wish the school well in the future.”

The school has 1,339 students on the roll, and Alison Michalska, director of children, family and adult services, said: “We are absolutely delighted to see one and a half thousand more secondary age pupils getting a good education.

“This has made a real difference to the East Riding of Yorkshire, as well as the Beverley area. We are grateful for the excellent leadership and management of this rapid improvement by Mr O’Donnell and for the high quality teamwork from the senior leaders, staff and governors.”

John Seaman, principal advisor for secondary schools in the East Riding, said; “This is a record turn around for an East Riding school and represents exceptional leadership from the head, backed by great teamwork from staff and governors at the school. We are really proud of the very effective support and challenge from the Local Authority Improvement and Learning Service.”

Sam Gorman, the chair of the governing body, whose leadership was also praised in the report, said: “The change at Longcroft School has been remarkable under the leadership of Mr O’Donnell and it now provides the students who attend our school with the education they deserve.

“Governors worked with the school and local authority, as a team, throughout this process, being supportive but challenging. The acknowledgement that we are ‘monitoring the school’s progress extremely well and holding the school to account’ highlights the contribution of the governing body to this judgement.

“I am delighted with the outcome and would like to thank staff, students and parents for their hard work and support that has made Longcroft School a school to be proud of.”