Pye Bank Primary: Sheffield school rated 'Good' after pledging to make changes five years ago

Pye Bank C of E Primary School, in Andover Street, pledged to turn around following a ‘requires improvement’ grade it got from the education watchdog in 2017.

Now, inspectors have given the Pitsmoor school the all clear in its newest report and have ranked it ‘Good’ in all areas.

The report, based off a visit in early June, reads: “Pupils are happy to attend Pye Bank Church of England Primary School.

“Leaders have thoughtfully constructed a curriculum which is ambitious and sequenced…reading is celebrated across the school.

“Parents feel all staff go out of their way to help their children and are very welcoming. They say their children are happy and safe in school and inspectors agree.”

It comes after the school came up short in an Ofsted visit in 2015 and again in 2017.

It led to headteacher Maureen Andrews vowing to bring about “rapid progress” and announcing a new leadership team.

The report from 2017 is far cry from the new standards found by inspectors, who praised children’s clear love of reading that is impressed on them “from day one” in reception.

Another ambitious scheme to get boys and girls into reading was the ‘Pye Bank one hundred’ recommended books, which pupils aspired to read from and chatted excitedly to inspectors at how one student had even read them all.

The report continues: “There are lots of roles that pupils can apply for. They can be sports leaders or a member of the ‘social action group’. Here, pupils can discuss climate change and plant trees.

“Pupils abide by ‘the five golden rules’, so in lessons and around the school, it is calm and orderly. The school values also help pupils to know how to be good citizens. Pupils especially show respect and kindness to each other.”

The school’s leadership and governing team were also rated highly. Against the criticisms laid out in 2017, inspectors found leaders “supported families well”, and governors had an “in-depth” knowledge of how the school had improved over the years.

Inspectors noted some weaknesses in how subjects like geography were reinforced and how some aspects of PSHE are not ‘fully embedded’ for some children – but these were minor criticisms in an otherwise glowing report.

Pye Bank CE Primary became an academy and joined the Diocese of Sheffield Academies Trust in July 2019.

Headteacher Maureen Andrews said: “I promised in 2017 that Pye Bank would make rapid progress and become a good school.

“We are immensely proud of our school, our children and families and the community here in Pitsmoor.

“The good judgement and the ongoing transformation of Pye Bank has been a complete team effort.

“Our promise now as a school is to continue to strive every day to provide an outstanding quality of education for all of our children, ensuring we live our mission each day, ‘learning together: learning to be together’.”