Top marks for college
OUTSTANDING students and staff at South Molton Community College are taking a well-earned two-week spring break.
The college has been awarded the highest praise by Government inspectors who visited the school last month to record its latest Ofsted report.
Judged to be outstanding in 21 areas, the college was deemed to be "a place where students of all abilities thrive as a result of the outstanding all-round education they receive."
Inspectors said that the quality of the learning and teaching was "outstanding" - and built upon principal Jim Wade's vision of "world class education."
"It really is a fantastic achievement for the college," Mr Wade told the Gazette.
"I think the word 'outstanding' appears more than 20 times in the report and a local authority spokesperson told me that this was the best secondary inspection report they had ever read."
The inspection was carried out over two days and involved a wide range of lesson observations, interviews with staff and pupils, and a parental questionnaire.
The report said that the college was a "caring, challenging place for all young people to be" and that "no stone was left unturned to ensure that every single student achieves their best."
Inspectors said that standards at the college had been steadily rising for a number of years.
Students make outstanding progress from Year Seven. In 2006 Year Nine, achievement was so good that the school was placed in the top five per cent nationally.
"Students currently in Years 10 and 11 have built upon their exceptional performance in Years Seven to Nine, and are performing far above the challenging targets that have been set for them," said the report.
Mr Wade added that the outstanding report was down to the hard work of staff, as well as an extremely supportive group of governors and parents.
"The community feel of the college is also one of the keys to our success and the students play an important part in making South Molton such a superb school," he said.
In a letter to pupils, inspectors said that South Molton was a "wonderful school."
"There is a real sense of community in the school and we were particularly impressed with the way that everyone gets on so well with each other," it said.
"You are outstandingly well cared for and for a small school, there are lots of things for you to do.
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