A Tredegar primary has made great strides in the past few years, as FRAN GILLETT found out.

“DEIGHTON has a special atmosphere,” said headteacher Mike Gough, talking about the Tredegar primary school which he has led since 2012.

Walking in as a visitor, it is clear he is right. It is difficult not to be struck by the school’s warmth and, what is even more manifest, the friendliness of the staff and children.

“I remember coming for a walk round in February 2012 before being appointed and was struck by how friendly and polite the children were,” said Mr Gough, who moved from Woodlands Community Primary School in Cwmbran.

“I thought when I first looked round what a warm place it is, the town is warm too. It’s the innate Valley’s friendliness.”

The school, which sits on Stockton Way, in Tredegar, has made enormous progress in the last three years.

Deighton is now ranked as “yellow” in the new coding system, a far cry from December 2011 when the school suffered criticisms from Estyn.

But during the little over three years while Mr Gough has headed the school, he and the school’s staff have worked hard in a range of areas.

Mr Gough said: “We have added a lot of rigour to the standards and we have moved forward quite considerably in the last three years.”

Reading was one of the first things Mr Gough addressed when he arrived, because “if you can’t read, you can’t access the curriculum,” he said.

The children in the school do daily guided reading and has set up a buddy reading scheme to encourage older pupils to help younger pupils with their reading skills. “It’s fun and good to help the younger ones because we know what we are doing,” year six pupil Amber McLoughlin said. Her classmate, Jay Brown, agrees: “You don’t only help them how to read but you get to talk to other kids too.”

And the extra focus on reading has been working, with an average if an extra 3.4 months between the pupils’ reading age and their actual age.

“Reading here is getting better and better,” Mr Gough said. “And this has a knock-on effect in improving matters across the curriculum.”

The staff constantly strive for academic excellence, Mr Gough said, and the high ambitions the teachers have for their pupils is shown by the recent year six trip to the University of Oxford.

On March 12, 29 pupils went to Jesus College as part of the school’s Aspire initiative, aimed at raising aspirations amongst all learners – and not just for success in academic terms.

“We have got to raise aspirations,” Mr Gough said.

“The contrast between the catchment area and Oxford University is staggering. We wanted to tell them that they were as good as anyone out there.

“But afterwards we did a questionnaire and numerically speaking, their aspirations have been raised.

“The way they have been talking, everyone’s got their own Oxford. Some of the lads put down on their forms they want to own their own garage, and that’s their own Oxford.”

It is clear it is just not academic standards the school has been pushing, but the whole package.

“We have also got quite strict behaviour management. It’s one of the core things for me,” he said.

“We place a great emphasis upon classroom and yard behaviour; without it, you cannot learn effectively.

“If children are not listening and behaving properly, or feel safe and happy in their learning, they can’t achieve.”

The school has updated their behaviour policy and practice three times since Mr Gough has led the school, with the most recent addition being an interactive rewards system called Class Dojo.

It means every time a child has shown signs of positive or negative behaviour, teachers can log it online and so parents can see what has been happening in school on a daily basis and exchange comments.

The measures have clearly worked; the number of “red cards” for more serious incidents has fallen from an average of 5.8 in Autumn 2012 to 1.6 in Spring this year.

As well as behaviour, the school has done a large amount of work on anti-bullying after Mr Gough saw the impact a robust anti-bullying policy has had at his previous schools.

Anti-bullying week is always well-supported and the School Council had their own wrist bands printed this year to support the event.

“It’s something everyone in education has to be on top of,” Mr Gough said.

“The main thing is, tell tell tell. If they can’t, then we have an anti-bullying box. There are slips they can put in the box. You can’t ever take it for granted and say we have cracked it.”

The school counts on a community of supportive parents with a “thriving” PTA who recently raised £5,000. The money has gone towards a refurbishment of the garden area where children can do gardening and eventually, once installed, read under the canopy.

Involving parents is another big part of the school and shown no better than in its work with technology.

Last May the school received 50 iPads and since then has set up a scheme where pupils from year five and six went through a very popular application process to be chosen as “digital leaders”.

As well as holding a weekly club where they test out new educational apps, the digital leaders work with parents and staff to involve them in using the new technology.

Lynsey Wangiel, Deputy Head, leads the digital leader scheme. She said: “It’s to help parents understand some of the more educational apps and to help aid their involvement and break down barriers.

“When a child explains something there is no jargon and they don’t complicate it.

“The parents really enjoy it. Often they feel embarrassed because the children know more than them but it empowers both the children and parents.”

Mr Gough said the school has come a long way in the last few years, and Estyn’s more recent report in June 2013 is testament to this.

The report said the school “provides a rich and varied environment for literacy where speaking and listing, reading and writing are given high status”.

“There is now a clear focus in the school on addressing underachievement and introducing greater levels of challenge in order to raise pupils’ attainment,” the report said.

To a visitor, rich and varied the school certainly seems, and despite the development, the staff and children agree Deighton has retained its unique friendliness.

“One thing I wanted when I came into headship is you can’t lose the fun,” Mr Gough said.

“They are talented kids. The school is moving forward and it’s a great place to come to work. I love the school.

“Raising academic standards and keeping what we have achieved is important - that’s not going to change on my watch.”

Fact file

Head teacher: Mike Gough

Age range: 4 -11

Motto: “Caring and Sharing, Happiness through Learning.”

Estyn Inspection: Deighton Primary School was last inspected in June 2013. The school was judged to have made sufficient progress in relation to the recommendations following the core inspection in October 2011 and was therefore removed from any further follow-up activity. It was, however, recommended to maintain the cycle of self-evaluation activities to continually review progress and reduce the budget deficit in line with agreed plans.