Ofsted and SIAMS Reports
Inspection Reports
All schools in England are subject to inspection by OFSTED (the Office for Standards in Education) approximately every 4-5 years.
In addition, church schools are also inspected to ascertain whether they are meeting the particular standards expected of a church school. This inspection is carried out by way of a SIAMS (Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools) every 5 years.
OFSTED
Eccleston St. Mary's CE Primary School was inspected in January 2020 and was graded Good in all areas with Outstanding for Behaviour and Attitudes to Learning.
As a previously 'Good' school, when we were due for inspection again (carried out in January 2025) it was an ungraded inspection, meaning no 'one-word judgements' would be made; the inspector would simply be checking that standards had been maintained from the previous inspection.
I am pleased to confirm that the inspector was more than happy with what he found and even chose only to give us one area for development, when two would be the norm. He felt standards of education, leadership, behaviour and personal development were all commendable at our school and he had no concerns whatsoever.
Please see the final report, below.
SIAMS
We had most recently been visited by SIAMS in February 2017, when we were adjudged to be an Outstanding Church School.
Owing to COVID, the SIAMS inspection process is currently aiming to re-inspect all church schools within an 8 year period and so we were visited in February 2025.
As with OFSTED, one-word judgements are no longer in use. Instead, there are two possible outcomes:
J1 The inspection findings indicate that the school is living up to its foundation as a Church school, and is enabling pupils and adults to flourish.
J2 The inspection findings indicate that the school has strengths, but that there are also issues that leaders need to address as a matter of priority.
I am happy to report, we were unequivocally awarded J1 and the inspector was thoroughly impressed with all she found, as is clear from her report (below.)