A SOUTHAMPTON school has been highlighted by the government for the progress pupils and teachers have made.

Head teacher Stephanie Bryant was asked to write about St Mark's Church of England school in Shirley for PM Theresa May's 2018 education parliamentary review.

Ms Bryant - who has been at the school since 2014 - has improved the school's Ofsted rating from "requires improvement" to "good" in just two years.

 

Now the school has been chosen to feature in the 2018 Parliamentary Review - which highlights best practice in education at schools across the UK.

Speaking to the Echo Ms Bryant said: "We were really proud to be asked. When I first got to the school I introduced talk for writing. The children orally rehearse their text then use that to independently produce a piece of writing. Their vocabulary has increased significantly."

 

Maths teacher Carla Laney has also travelled to Shanghai to observe how maths is taught there. Ms Bryant added: "Maths is broken down into really small steps - they go into each number from a young age, and the children how to manipulate each number from 1-10."

 

The school has also recruited its own PE teacher in a bid to combat obesity. Ms Bryant said: "We want our children to be mentally and physically well. We wanted someone to really focus on PE and to teach the other teachers how to do it well."

 

Number of pupils: 461

Founded in 1883

SEND: 28 per cent

Pupil premium: 27 per cent

Number of languages spoken: 33