A local secondary school has bounced back to get a ‘Good’ OFSTED rating after being told to improve.

Theale Green School was rated ‘Requires Improvement’ by the education inspector when it was last rated in May 2017.

However, following a recent inspection, the school has now been rated ‘Good’ in all areas.

In particular, inspectors praised the ‘ambitious’ curriculum at Theale Green, with increasing numbers of pupils taking the English Baccalaureate, which includes english, maths, science, a foreign language and either history or geography.

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Parents, staff and pupils surveyed were incredibly positive about school leadership.

Inspectors also noted the school has a ‘thriving’ sixth form, with two thirds of students going on to university.

To improve, while the curriculum was judged as ambitious, there is inconsistency among subjects with inspectors recommending that school leaders ensure curriculum objectives are ‘fully and securely embedded’ across all subjects.

Celebrating the rating, Joanna Halliday, headteacher of Theale Green School since September 2018, said: “We are a community school in every sense and this inspection is a reflection of the strength of the relationships and networks we have built within our community, our Trust and the wider world.

“I am so incredibly proud of the students and the staff at Theale Green School.

“We have developed a culture, which is reflected brilliantly in the report, from which we can continue to grow and develop.

“This September will see 750 students starting at Theale Green School, and with this continued growth in the number of students joining us, we now look forward to the development of our Student Support Centre, our Well Being Garden and continued growth of our curriculum.”

Reading Chronicle: Sixth form pupils at Theale Green School. Credit: ALETSixth form pupils at Theale Green School. Credit: ALET

Theale Green has been run by the Activate Learning Education Trust (ALET), since April 2018.

Joanne Harper, CEO of ALET, said: “This is a fantastic achievement for Theale Green School.

“The community has a school it can be proud of; one that has placed relationships at the heart of its improvement journey, which results in a school that genuinely cares about every individual – students, staff, parents and wider community stakeholders.

“ALET is enormously proud of the school, its governors, leaders, staff and students.”

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Paul Emberlin, chair of the Local Governing Committee, added: “The Governors and I are hugely proud of the school’s achievements.

“This inspection clearly evidences the amazing progress the school has made and the hugely positive influence and impact the school has on its pupils, and wider Theale community.

“The staff, students, and wider Theale community all have a school of which they can be proud.”

The inspection took place on May 4 and 5 this year, and was undertaken by Paul Metcalf, Taj Bhambra and Cathy Reid.

The report due to be publicly available on the OFSTED site soon.

Theale Green currently has 646 pupils with 99 sixth form students.

Activate Learning also runs Reading College and UTC Reading.

In the inspection in 2017, OFSTED criticised leaders and teachers at Theale Green, calling key stage 3 (years 7-9) teaching ‘weak’ and leaders’ evaluation of pupil progess being too generous.