Wokingham

Inspectors from the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) have today (November 26) concluded that Wokingham Borough Council’s children’s services makes a good contribution to ensuring children and young people are healthy, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution and are achieving economic well-being.

In its annual performance assessment, the report highlights the Wokingham council ‘consistently delivers services above minimum requirements in most areas’. Inspectors noted that children and their families are well-supported in becoming and remaining healthy. They were impressed that 90 per cent of schools participate in the healthy schools programme, which is higher than similar local authorities and inspectors noted many schools were working hard to promote healthy eating to combat childhood obesity. Over the past year there has also been an increase in take-up of school meals.

The majority of childcare settings within the Wokingham Borough were judged as good in Ofsted inspections over the past year, this is a higher percentage than the national figure showing the Wokingham Borough provides a good start to young children’s learning. At all key stage levels of education, pupils in the Wokingham borough achieve higher than national averages.

Education continued to be praised by inspectors. They stated ‘the standards reached by children in primary and secondary schools are very good.’ They also praised the work that has been undertaken to reduce the numbers of fixed term and permanent exclusions. Inspectors praised the council’s emotional literacy project in school and said ‘it was having an impact in terms of reducing poor behaviour and keeping pupils in school.’

Inspectors were also impressed with the good service that is provided for Wokingham children with learning difficulties and or/disabilities and their families. Consultation is high on the council’s agenda and the involvement of young people was classed as good by the inspectors. There is also a high percentage of children who remain in education, employment or training after the age of 16.

The annual performance assessment noted that young people in the Borough generally have high aspirations and many go to university. Those not in education, employment or training have been reducing year-on-year and the average of 4.8 per cent is lower than the national figure.

Good partnership between schools was also noted by the inspectors. A post-16 education pilot for pupils to study courses at different schools has begun in Wokingham town schools along with two others. This has meant both students and teachers have moved around the borough to study or teach courses that would otherwise not be on offer at their school.

Wokingham Borough Council