Bell Lane Primary School

Bell Lane is a community primary school with a nursery. It is situated near the centre of the large village of Ackworth, eight miles to the south-east of the city of Wakefield. I was appointed as headteacher in 2010 having worked in the school prior to this. The school had been ‘stuck’ with a ‘satisfactory/ requires improvement’ grade for many years and morale was at a low across the school.

A change in ethos came from something that I had been told whilst applying for headship: ‘It’s lonely being a head.’ The aim of our school is that no-one is ever lonely - not the head, staff, pupils, governors or parents. Our ethos is based on teamwork which led to the securing of our ‘good’ grade from Ofsted earlier this academic year. This team approach where everyone is valued, supported and provided with opportunities to learn from others, has secured improved practice for all staff regardless of their role within school, along with effective distributed leadership and better progress for pupils.