Congratulations to Clough school

SIR, — I write to put on record my congratulations to Cumran Primary School in Clough and the pupils, teachers and management team who recently received an Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) status of Outstanding in all categories.

The school is a credit to our village, wider community and district as a whole. The key findings of the report reflect that the school not only is achieving all relevant targets but far exceeding them, going above and beyond in “Outcomes for Learners, Quality of Provision, Leadership and Management”.

It is a remarkable, but unsurprising, assessment of what most of us already knew to be reflective of the devotion and dedication of the principal, Rhonda Moles, and her teaching team.

The curriculum experienced by all of the children is relevant and creative. It empowers them to develop their full potential as confident individuals who are well prepared to contribute to society in an ever changing world.

A notable strength is the sector-leading provision for ICT where the highly skilled staff use an extensive range of educational technology to enrich and deepen the children’s learning experiences.

The staff have developed a language-rich learning environment where the children’s achievements in literacy are recognised and celebrated.

The staff employ a wide range of creative and innovative approaches, such as a programme which focuses on developing the children’s critical thinking skills and the use of question matrixes, thinking frames and stories to develop and extend the children’s talking, listening and reading skills. The wealth of topics covered are reflective of the thought and dedication to detail shown by all staff when planning teaching plans.

I, like many others, are guilty of overlooking the tremendous work teachers do, inspiring and preparing our young people for the challenges of life, whilst nurturing their self worth, encouraging self belief and setting them on a path of future learning and discovery.

I am absolutely confident that the school will continue to make us proud.

Yours etc,

CLLR ALAN LEWIS.