IT is every school’s worst nightmare to be put into special measures by Ofsted.

Why then is there now such a positive buzz around St Christopher’s C of E Primary in Cowley?

Eighteen months after being declared inadequate by Government inspectors, staff, parents and governors are not only proud of the achievements that have been made, they are now counting down the days before the school is declared to no longer need specialist intervention.

Headteacher Alison Holden said: “We are very, very close to coming out of special measures.

“When the inspector last visited in December, the monitoring letter recognised good progress across the board.

“The next visit will be an assessment in term four, about March. We are hoping then that we will come to the end of this process.”

When a school fails an Ofsted inspection, the local authority becomes more involved in its running, and the board of governors is replaced with an interim executive board.

School leaders must then follow an intense and focused plan of action to secure improvement, with Ofsted returning regularly to monitor how quickly changes are being made.

Four key challenges were set for St Christopher’s: challenging pupils and boosting progress in English, maths and science; more effectively analysing pupils’ performance, particularly of Pakistani children; improving attendance and communication; and developing leadership.

Mrs Holden said the changes had been dramatic, and had already led directly to improved results.

The groups of children in each class have been changed to phase out mixed year groups, and teachers have been asked to try new methods.

On attendance, staff have worked to ensure each lesson starts punctually, and children arriving late for school report to the office so any issues can be directly addressed.

Above all, children’s performance is now monitored closely from the day they walk into St Christopher’s, to the day they head to secondary school.

Mrs Holden said: “There are now more assessment points to take stock of what progress children are making.

“We can see which are not making progress and ask why. Are there special educational needs? Is English an additional language? Are there attendance issues?

“Then we can look at what we can put in place to help.”

She added: “It has been hard and demanding, but when you see the impact of everything we have done, the improvement, and the children making progress, it is worth it.

“Despite the stress, the staff have coped admirably with the changes. They are a really positive team and always have the children and parents’ best interests at heart.

“As the process has gone on, parents have had much more understanding about the changes in the school.

“They remain very supportive, and we have worked on communicating with them more regularly.” Mrs Holden said the next stage was re-examining the curriculum, looking at how it could developed to make it more creative, and to open the school buildings up to more community groups after hours.

Oxfordshire County Council also has plans for the school’s expansion. For the last two years, intake has been 60 rather than 45, and eventually 420 pupils and 68 nursery children could all be accommodated on the site.

A THIRD of children at St Christopher’s have some level of special educational needs (SEN). One of the school leaders’ key focuses has been to improve the targeting of support given to these children, overseen by SEN co-ordinator Sara Kearns, left. In Ofsted’s latest monitoring report, inspectors recognised huge progress in SEN provision, adding that “leadership is effective in identifying specific needs early on and ensuring that suitable strategies and support are put in place to meet such needs”. Early intervention is one of Miss Kearns’ main targets. Once the needs of struggling children are identified, programmes are put in place to help them with reading, writing and maths so they can catch up quickly. Teaching assistants (TAs) work with small groups or one-to-one with pupils who need extra help. Miss Kearns also works closely with class teachers, so the progress made in smaller groups is reinforced in the classroom. She said: “We now have less children with the highest levels of need, which shows what we are doing is working. “We talk more to children about what they think they are getting from the groups, and whether they think they are learning, and what they should be doing next. “They can see the progress they are making as well, and it is important they give feedback. In small groups, and in one-to-ones, it is easier to keep giving that push in confidence.” Headteacher Alison Holden said: “All of my teachers are star teachers, and everyone has been working so hard throughout this whole process. “It is impossible to single one person out, but when Ofsted last visited in December, they recognised the work Sara was doing with SEN pupils.”