Village school celebrates joining academy trust

Buckminster Primary School officially joined the multi-academy trust on Friday, when a special event was held.

The children, teachers, administration employees and parents were joined by staff from across the Trust, including headteachers, executive team members and trustees, to celebrate the school’s conversion.

Year five and six pupils enjoyed giving tours and showing the visitors their favourite features of the school.

The children then sang ‘Power In Me’, by Rebecca Lawrence, for the visitors during assembly.

Julia Orridge, headteacher at Buckminster Primary School, also co-ordinated virtual meetings for children from each school within the Trust to introduce themselves.

She said: “We are really pleased to officially join the Mowbray Education Trust.

"The school has been on an incredible journey over the last year and are looking forward to continually developing the quality of education with the support and guidance of the family of schools within the MET.”

Carl Elder, the Trust’s interim chief executive officer, commented: "Thank you to everyone who attended.

"We had a lovely morning welcoming members of the community to the Trust.

"We look forward to the continued collaborative support and development between school and Trust teams.”

Buckminster Primary School, which has 52 pupils, moved up from an ‘inadequate’ Ofsted rating to ‘Requires Improvement’ recently after hard work to address issues that were highlighted. Inspectors have always praised its behaviour and attitudes and its early years provision.

There is a now a new way of grading schools based on individual aspects of a school's performance.

Drew Richardson-Walsh, the MET’s vice-chair, added: “Despite the school’s challenging recent past, through the leadership of the new headteacher, Julia Orridge, with support from Ian Toon and the wider Trust team, this is a school which the community can be proud of.”

Buckminster joins Melton Mowbray’s John Ferneley College, Brownlow Primary, Sherard School and The Grove Primary School in the Trust.

Other schools in the Trust are Ab Kettleby Primary, Somerby Primary and Shepshed-based Iveshead School.

Oasis Pre-School and Retreat, in Melton, is also part of the Trust.

Click HERE to visit Buckminster Primary School’s website.