Headteacher shares tips to success after Northamptonshire primary tops school league table

Northamptonshire's top performing primary school in the latest set of league tables released by the Government.
Pupils enjoying a hot chocolate after playing in the snowPupils enjoying a hot chocolate after playing in the snow
Pupils enjoying a hot chocolate after playing in the snow

Figures released by the Department for Education last month highlighted that, nationally, around 200,000 pupils are not reaching the “required standard.”

Across the county 49 of the 325 primary schools made the target, with The Brampton's primary school of Chapel Brampton topping the list with 100 percent of its pupils reaching the required standard.

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John Gillet, head of The Brampton's primary school, told the Chronicle & Echo that the school does not have a long list of rules for children to remember.

The Bramptons pupilsThe Bramptons pupils
The Bramptons pupils

He said: “Our school is structured on six key values, and they were decided upon parents, children, governors and staff. We base everything we do around the six values, they are: respect, courtesy, honesty, compassion, perseverance and loyalty.

“What we don’t have is long lists of rules that our children have to remember. If the children stick to our six values, they will be doing the right thing anyway.

“We try to couch things in positive terms as well, we tell them what they should do and not what they shouldn’t.”

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In a three-mile radius around Northampton town centre only four primary schools reached the target of having 65 percent of its pupils achieving the “expected standard” in reading, writing and maths on leaving primary school.

Headteacher, John GilletHeadteacher, John Gillet
Headteacher, John Gillet

“We take the view that reading is the most important thing that you need to learn,” Mr Gillet added.

“All of our children read with adults regularly and we are lucky to have parent helpers that come in and listen to the children read, and our reading results were outstanding and our combined reading writing and maths.

“One hundred percent of our students reached the expected levels and we were the only school in the county that did that."

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A total of 676 schools in England - roughly one in 20 - failed to meet tough new targets imposed by the Government last year.

The Bramptons pupilsThe Bramptons pupils
The Bramptons pupils

Mr Gillet said: “We don't concentrate on our results, but we find that comes from our ethos at our school.

“We don’t pressurise our children to past tests, but they do and that's down to their hard work, our team of teachers, our very supportive parents and governors and the fact that try to run a school that children want to come to.

“I think we did work hard with our children and as a smaller school, we are able to meet their needs very accurately.

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“There are 90 children in the whole school and we are able to tailor the support to exactly what they need."

Headteacher, John GilletHeadteacher, John Gillet
Headteacher, John Gillet

Mr Gillet believes there are lots of good hard working schools in Northamptonshire that are doing the best for their children, but he is delighted that the statistics have favoured The Bramptons this year.

When asking the head whether the statistics were easy to secure, he said: "I don’t think they’re easy to obtain, we are a small school and we did get 100 percent of the expected levels.

“As a small school, each child becomes a much bigger percentage so if only one of those children didn't make it then that puts you down to 80 something, straight away through one child.

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The top performing primary school pride themselves on the fact that they have their own minibus so children can benefit from learning outside of the school surroundings, at no additional cost for the parents.