Top marks at St Thomas More School, Gateshead
This story courtesy of Steve Heal and colleagues in Gateshead Council's Communications Team
A Gateshead school has been praised by a Government watchdog after receiving an amazing set of scores in an official report.
St Thomas More Catholic School in Gateshead has gained a clean sweep of the top marks across all the main categories, under the Government’s new testing framework.
Teachers, pupils and governors were delighted to learn that the school had received an overall judgement of outstanding, in a newly published report from the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED).
It gained the top mark - grade 1 outstanding - in 36 of the 38 categories, and received the second highest award in the remaining two categories.
St Thomas More is described as being an “outstanding and inclusive� school where all the students’ “personal, academic, social and spiritual development is supported�.
Inspectors noted that, “all are supported to fully take part in the life of the school. Students work hard and play hard.�
The report also praised the excellent exam results at the school as well as the vision and drive of senior management.
The headteacher, governors and staff were all praised for their outstanding contribution to the schools success, which was attributed to an unrelenting drive for excellence.
Headteacher Jonathan Parkinson, said:
“It is always nice to get praised for the work you do and this report from OFSTED makes fantastic reading. Achieving such high standards, and maintaining them over the years, requires an enormous amount of hard work on the part of the staff of the school.
“It also requires the determined support of parents and Governors, and we are fortunate as a school on both counts. The pupils have a vital contribution to make and the inspectors were particularly impressed with them.�
David Mitchell, director of learning and schools at Gateshead Council said:
“This is great news for all the children, parents, teachers and everybody else associated with the School. To be rated as outstanding is a remarkable achievement and testament to all their hard work.
“I would like to offer my congratulations to everyone at the school for this justified national recognition.�