AN INSPECTOR has heaped praise on Glusburn Community Primary School staff who teach its youngest children.

An assessor from the Basic School Quality Mark gave a clean bill of health to the school’s Early Years unit.

The school currently holds BSQMs for the whole school as a well as a separate Early Years Quality Mark, with assessments taking place every three years and an interim assessment at the midpoint.

School head Richard Hunt said the visit this month (November) was a midpoint check for the Early Years unit.

He said: “The assessor focused on assessment, expectations, planning next steps for children, the balance of child-initiated and adult-led play, improving the skills of practitioners, resources, and partnerships with parents.

“The assessor was full of praise of our Early Years unit and extremely complimentary of our staff, particularly the leadership of Linsey Sanderson.”

The assessor thanked the school for the “most enjoyable and illuminating” visit to the Early Years department.

The assessor brought: “It was clearly evident that practitioners are experienced, knowledgeable, and positive.

“They are dedicated to ensure an excellent Early Years education is provided for all children in their care.

“The learning environments both inside and out are well organised to maximise opportunities for children to learn effectively. Educational play experiences are highly valued and well organised.

“The children’s engagement and concentration in their learning activities was impressive. They were very keen to show the assessor their excellent Learning Journals and to talk about them.

“Their use of vocabulary was very good. They were able to express themselves clearly and confidently.

“They showed great pride in their work and achievements and were clearly very happy and secure in their stimulating and caring learning environment.”

The Basic Skills Quality Mark is an award that celebrates and supports continuous improvement in literacy and numeracy.

It is awarded schools that recognise ‘provision, practice and performance’ in literacy and numeracy, and can demonstrate a ‘whole school’ approach to improvement.

The Quality Mark provides a framework for self-evaluation and continuous improvement of the basic skills of all pupils in a school, including those who under-achieve and under-attain.