Uphall Primary School in Uphall Road was visited by Ofsted inspectors on February 28, with the findings made public on March 28.
Ofsted deemed the school ‘outstanding’ in three categories and ‘good’ in two – a major improvement from the school’s previous inspection where it was labelled as ‘requiring improvement’ in June 2022.
Inspectors described the school as “exceptionally diverse” with “positive relationships between staff, pupils, parents and carers”.
The report added: “Pupils thrive in the family atmosphere of this nurturing school and have an excellent understanding of their moral and social responsibilities, which helps them meet leaders’ expectations with great success.”
Geneza Gheorghe (left) and Kacper Raczynski (right) are both pupils at Uphall Primary (Image: Uphall Primary School)The report highlighted the musical offering at Uphall in particular.
It said: “The music offer is exceptional – every pupil in the school learns to play more than one instrument as they move from simple percussion to ukulele and then to keyboard.
“Weekly singing and listening assemblies provide an opportunity for pupils to sing together and appreciate music from around the world.”
Many students are involved in the school choir, which performs each year at the Royal Albert Hall and the O2 Arena.
The report noted that the curriculum has undergone “significant improvement since the previous inspection” and the school has identified and sequenced the important knowledge, vocabulary and skills pupils should learn.
Leaders have “prioritised the most important aspects and checked the impact of their work which has helped to ensure that the changes they have introduced are well-embedded across the school”.
Dr Kulvarn Atwal, principal learning leader, said: “As a school community, all of us within the Uphall family are incredibly proud that the inspection team recognised the fantastic work that our school does each and every day.
“Although we are slightly disappointed that we didn’t receive five outstanding grades, we are very happy that the significant journey of improvement that we have been on has been reflected in the report.
“At Uphall, we really do have an amazingly unique learning community and to go from requires improvement to outstanding is a fantastic achievement.”
Year six pupil, Geneza Gheorghe, added: “I am very proud that our school is ‘outstanding’ because we always work hard to do our best every day and keep improving.”
