A SCHOOL in East Hagbourne near Didcot has turned things around two years after being downgraded by Ofsted.

Hagbourne Primary School, once considered outstanding, fell two grades below that level and came out of a June 2013 inspection as requiring improvement.

But in its latest inspection it has achieved a good rating, with inspectors commenting the school has the chance to again become outstanding – the highest mark possible.

Several issues were flagged up in the 2013 report including children not making good progress, expectations for their learning not high enough, and teachers not making sure work was set at the right level for them.

Headteacher Annette Crewe arrived in September 2012 and recognised that the school, which has 207 pupils on roll, needed work.

It worked closely with two other local schools that had both been rated good at their last inspections, Northbourne and Long Wittenham Primary schools, to see where it could improve.

Mrs Crewe said: “They would come in, observe lessons and give feedback on areas to improve.

“They verified my judgement and gave advice on where to take the school next, what next development I should plan.”

Other measures included comparing the work of all children from the same year across the various schools and making sure they were at the same level.

The school’s governors, who according to the previous report were not holding senior staff to account, also helped.

Mrs Crewe added: “They worked really hard. They are now the right balance of being critical friends with high expectations. We have regular meetings where I have to present data to make sure children are making progress.”

The new rating came after a two-day inspection from two inspectors.

Mrs Crewe said: “I wasn’t stressed in the slightest, because I knew I had everything in place. I just knew I had to be prepared if they asked anything else and find the data. But it’s always stressful for the teachers to be watched during the lessons. If anybody watches you doing anything, it’s stressful.”

The improved grade, she said, was well-deserved.

She added: “Everybody has worked hard. Our school is good and it is going to stay that way.

“Even little things matter. When I arrived, their shirts weren’t tucked and I would tell them to tuck them in. Now they’re proud to do the work and they’re proud of their school uniforms.”

Even before the new Ofsted report was published, word got around that Hagbourne had improved – so much so that it was oversubscribed this autumn for the first time since Mrs Crewe took over as headteacher.