Alton School's deserved praise

I've written before about the huge efforts that the The Alton School makes to improve the educational achievements of its pupils. So I was delighted to read the school's recent Ofsted report, and the positive write-up this prompted in this week's Wandsworth Guardian.

Alton School serves one of Europe's biggest estates, in Roehampton. The population of the Alton is changing rapidly - as well as some of the worst deprivation in the borough (Roehampton is the second most deprived ward in Wandsworth) it also has a large and growing eastern European population, which is both highly transient and introduces lots of children for whom English is not their primary language.

High turnover, significant deprivation and sadly, on occasion, parents who don't always appreciate that education isn't just a 9am-3pm past-time but rather a round-the-clock collective effort: all these factors mean that Alton will always struggle to head the Primary School league tables.

The school's just launched a breakfast club starting at 8am offering a healthy breakfast and games to start off the school day. As Headteacher Ruth Hudson says: "If children aren't coming in ready to learn it's no use forcing literacy and numeracy on them". That's not some liberal excuse to not teach the basics - it's a recognition that schools like the Alton need to go an extra mile to set their pupils on the right course. They're evidently doing so, and it's great that Ofsted has recognised their achievement.

You can read the Ofsted report here.