Rush Green Primary School

‘Strive to Succeed’

Rush Green Primary School is a recently amalgamated, much larger than average, four form community school in East London. The school has a varied intake where more than twenty different languages are spoken and pupil attainment is below age related expectations upon entry to the nursery. The school has a much higher than average proportion of free school meals and special needs children.

I joined the school as head teacher in September 2013 and found a school which was going through the growing pains of a difficult amalgamation and a school which had been left behind in terms of standards, expectations, leadership and professional develop-ment. Ofsted inspection reports over the previous twelve years painted a picture of poor progress, a lack of focus, a falling roll and falling standards. In fact, an analysis of progress based on the 2013 Key Stage 2 SATs data indicated that every pupil group made significantly less than nationally expected progress. In spite of this, the school’s own internal data indicated that pupils were making huge rates of progress.