AN education watchdog has given a school top marks.

The headteacher of Hockley Primary School, says she is “overwhelmed” after Ofsted judged the school to be outstanding in every area.

Mrs Heatherson, who has been headteacher at the school in Chevening Gardens for six years, said: “It is such an amazing report for the school and the community and exemplifies the hard work from the whole school team and the strong support that we have from all stakeholders.

“The school moved from satisfactory to good at the last Ofsted May 2011 – during my first year of headship at the school.”

The report said the school had “leadership and management are exceptional at all levels”.

Mrs Heatherson said: “I have focussed on building a strong leadership and middle management team and developing people at every level to ensure that we have developed the very best learning opportunities for all of our children.

“Developing the very best leaders, teachers and support staff enables the achievement of high outcomes for the children. We also strongly believe that the home school partnership is instrumental to achieving high outcomes from the children, so right from the start when the children are in the early years, we involve the parents at every opportunity.

“This continues throughout the children’s time in school via opportunities for parents to work with their children and attend parent workshops in order to understand how to support their children’s learning further.”

To celebrate the report the school invited the children to bring their families onto the playground on Friday morning.

They made a special announcement and released balloons in the school colours to the tune of “Congratulations”.

Staff and governors were all part of the celebration and the children will be treated to a party due to their hard work and good behaviour.

Mrs Heatherson added: “This is my sixth year as headteacher at Hockley Primary School, my first headship. I feel so very fortunate to work in such a strong and supportive community, with such lovely children whose “behaviour is exemplary”.

"It is such an honour to read the Ofsted report and to see “the leadership of the inspirational headteacher is outstanding.”

Summary of the report:

  • The school’s leadership is described as outstanding, as is the ethos and culture of the school and the pupils’ attainment in key subjectss
  • The provision in place for early years as outstanding.
  • Teaching is consistently good and much outstanding.
  • Pupils’ behaviour is exemplary.
  • The school’s curriculum is rich and the school has excellent governors.
  • Children feel safe and cared for in the school.
  • The head teacher’s leadership is described as outstanding.

The school has gone from strength to strength over the past ten years.

Ofsted report dates:

  • 2003 satisfactory
  • 2008 satisfactory
  • 2011 good
  • 2016 outstanding