A SCHOOL which hit rockbottom when it was placed in special measures five years ago is on its way up.

Callington Community College has been given an overall rating of ‘requires improvement’ with particular emphasis on leadership and quality of education but has been deemed ‘good’ in behaviour and attitudes, personal development and sixth form provision.

Ofsted told the school it expected it to reach ‘good’ in all areas in 18 months time.

The inspection took place in September, just two weeks after the new principal took her role.

Principal Wendy Ainsworth said: ‘It’s a really good outcome considering the journey the school has been on and was where we had expected ourselves to be. What the team and the report recognised are where the real strengths are and though it’s not cited in the report, the inspector was clear in her feedback that she would expect us to be solidly good in all areas in 18 months time.

‘I joined the college in September and this is my first headship. It was clear from my first visit to Callington Community College that it was a school with heart.

‘The school had experienced a tumultuous few years, having gone into special measures five years ago for safeguarding failures and seeing a decline in student numbers that followed suit. The school was adopted by Westcountry Trust (WeST) in 2016 and began to secure improvements, but further difficulties followed when the substantive principal became unwell and what then followed was a series of leaders from WeST at the helm until my appointment.’

She said the turnover in leadership and the lack of stability could have been ‘hugely demotivating’ for staff and students but both had welcomed her openly as work began to embed the existing improvements and secure longer term gains.

‘My feet were barely under the table — two weeks and half a day — when the call from Ofsted came,’ said Mrs Ainsworth. ‘We were confident in the improvements secured — most notably safeguarding, which was in an excellent position and student behaviour and attitudes which were very good also. We were accepting of our improvements being needed in student outcomes and addressing students’ wider reading and vocabulary and had rationalised these in the pre-visit call from our inspector.

‘The report reflects the hard work and commitment made by both staff and students over the last few years and is really representative of our journey. To achieve three judgements in “good” in the categories was wonderful.’

The report stated that the improvements the school needed to implement were: establishing the newly designed curriculums across the school; embedding a love of reading for pleasure across the school; ensuring pupils develop a wide vocabulary throughout the curriculum and ensuring the support that pupils with SEND (special educational needs and/or disabilities) and disadvantaged pupils is implemented fully.

Mrs Ainsworth said the next steps were to ‘embed a love of reading’ and improve students’ vocabulary. The school has already begun this process with subject specific reading being deployed daily and celebrating literary events. It has also begun to secure curriculum improvements.