A WINSFORD primary school which has 'required improvement' since before the Covid pandemic is celebrating after receiving its new Ofsted rating.

On June 6, the education watchdog visited Willow Wood Community Nursery and Primary School - four years on from its last inspection.

And this month it published its report on the Bradbury Road school, which has improved to a 'Good' rating.

Head teacher Martin Bell was very pleased with the new rating, but added it was only 'a small milestone on a bigger journey'.

He said: "We’re really proud of the journey the school’s in the last four years and the hard work of the teachers and the children in terms of going from ‘requires improvement’ to ‘good’.

"It’s a small milestone on a bigger journey but its good to get that recognition of all that hard work everyone at the school – governors, staff, children – have put in over the last four years.

"We kept our focus through the pandemic and moving things forward was a challenge absolutely, but we tried to just plough through and use it as an opportunity to continue to drive improvement in the school."

The Ofsted report highlighted the 'warm and caring' relationships pupils enjoy at the school, as well as the respect they show towards each other.

It added school leader's expect pupils to try their best and meet behaviour expectations, which the children strive to live up to.

In her report, lead inspector Louise McArdle said: "Since the last inspection, leaders have worked effectively together to create a well-constructed and coherent curriculum journey.

"It is now much more ambitious, and carefully identifies the most important content that pupils should learn from the beginning of the early years to the end of year six.

"Teachers use assessment information well to spot and address any misconceptions quickly and to shape future teaching effectively.

"Overall, pupils achieve increasingly well. In the 2022 assessments and statutory tests, the oldest pupils performed at least as well or better than their peers nationally.

"Although pupils’ outcomes at the end of key stage one do not match the stronger picture at the end of key stage two, current pupils are catching up quickly, and gaps in their learning are being addressed effectively.

"Teachers benefit from a wide range of subject-specific training. This enables them to teach most subjects with confidence.

"In some subjects, the improvements that have been made to the curriculum are recent. This means that there is more work to do to ensure staff teach these curriculums consistently well, so pupils know more and remember more over time in these subjects."

"Governors share leaders’ high ambitions for pupils. They make effective checks on many different aspects of school life.

"Staff are proud to work at the school. They feel leaders care about their workload and well-being."