WHEN Wokingham resident Matt Parting heard that his school’s latest Ofsted report recognised the huge improvements made there he let out a cheer.
And then he remembered.
The headteacher had promised his staff months earlier that if St Mary & All Saints CE Primary School could achieve a ‘good’ Ofsted report, he would get the school vision tattooed.
“I’d never planned to have a tattoo,” he said.
“When I joined St Mary & All Saints School three years ago we launched our new vision, Life In All Its Fullness.
“It comes from something Jesus said – ‘I have come in order that you might have life, life in all its fullness’.
“And it has very much become the foundation of everything we do at the school, in our curriculum, in personal development, with staff, adults, the community, children – it’s a vision for everyone.”
Written on walls all around the school in every classroom, that vision is now also written on Matt’s arm.
That tattoo was done by Steven Watts at Oddbody Tattoos.
“At some point I made this promise that if we reached a ‘good’ Ofsted status, after being rated ‘inadequate’ for the previous 10 years, I would have the vision tattooed onto my arm,” he laughed.
“It seemed like something that would be many years down the road, but we have made such exceptional progress in just three years, that this July we were rated ‘good’ across the board, in all areas, except in Personal Development.”
In this area the school scored even better, and was rated ‘outstanding’.
Looking at his tattoo, Matt said: “To be honest, I had actually forgotten about the promise I’d made, but my staff hadn’t.
“Someone – I don’t know who – wrote it on the staffroom whiteboard, and there it was the next morning: ‘Matt, we’re looking forward to seeing your new tattoo.’
“And that’s why I now have Life In All Its Fullness forever on my arm, which I’m actually very chuffed about.”
The school, rated inadequate for a decade, has been completely turned around in the last three years thanks to the efforts of dedicated staff at St Mary & All Saints School.
Matt is particularly pleased that the Ofsted rating found the school not just ‘good’, but ‘securely good’ in its educational standards, and says he’s delighted that the school achieved an ‘outstanding’ rating for Personal Development.
The improved rating reflects a big cultural change that has taken place in the school community, which comes with higher aspirations for the children.
And as evidence of this, St Mary & All Saints combined SATs results this year were above the national average, with children going to local secondary schools ready to learn.
“When I arrived in 2022 just 23% of children had achieved combined passes in reading, writing and maths,” Matt said.
“Now we’re at an above national 66% combined.
“It means our children are going on to secondary school, not only having had amazing experiences at school, but with academic foundation to back that up and to succeed, which they didn’t have before.
“We do all sorts of character building activities: we visit Finland, we climb mountains, we go down mines, and we have great support from Reading Boys School through an elective education programme.
“All of these extra things help our children to learn, and they’ll tell you this themselves.
“They’ll say: ‘I’m now ready to try new things’, or: ‘I know I can do this – because I’ve been ice-fishing in Finland.’
“There are direct links between the challenges we have given them and the challenges of going to secondary school and succeeding in education.
We’ve never sent children more ready than we are now – for example 24% achieved greater-depth in maths.
“These are aspirational numbers from an aspirational school, and we know that there is a direct correlation between these grades and how they will do in secondary school at GCSE, A levels, and their potential as future adults.
“It really is about giving them Life In All Its Fullness.”
For information, visit: stmaryandallsaints.co.uk
