Harvington CofE First School: from Good to Outstanding

Harvington is a Church of England first school located north of Evesham in Worcestershire. Our school was judged as Good by Ofsted in 2012; our School Improvement Advisor felt that while our data and outcomes were sound, we needed to be more succinct and confident with where we were at as a school. After joining Challenge Partners, we’ve had the opportunity to upskill our staff and access a challenging and supportive process to help address this, and last year we achieved an Outstanding grading from Ofsted.

Central to that outcome was utilising insights from our school’s Quality Assurance review. Of course, the review is categorically not an inspection! That said, the level of challenge, rigour and professional dialogue you are exposed to represents exceptional CPD for school leaders.

It has also been really valuable to be part of the Bengeworth hub; this year, the hub’s focus has been pupil leadership, and we have been supporting our students in leading reviews of learning and behaviour across our hub schools. We have also focused on pupil premium students and our pupil premium leads have been able to work together to share practice.

Helen Fishbourne, Headteacher