School once deemed inadequate' by Ofsted is now transformed - and popular with parents in Milton Keynes

A primary school given an inadequate Ofted rating three years ago has seen a 33 per cent increase in the number of families selecting it as their first choice school for admissions this September,

Holne Chase Primary School in Bletchley became part of the award-winning Preston Hedges Trust in December 2020 after being given the dreaded rating by Ofsted.

It has since been transformed with a new leadership team, bespoke curriculum, closer working partnership with parents and the community, and a cash injection of £350,000 to develop creative, technology-led learning spaces.

And now parents in the local area are returning to the school with this year’s primary school admissions figures showing 24 families selected the school as their first choice – an increase of 33% from last year.

Principal David Killick who was appointed by the Trust to drive the school forward said: “We are so encouraged that the excellent progress we are making, to transform the school and create exciting opportunities for our pupils, is being noticed by the community and reflected in this increase in first choice applications.

“We place fun, creativity and achievement at the heart of everything we do at Holne Chase. Our new leadership team and creative curriculum are already enabling significant improvements in pupil outcomes, with year six projections being well above the national average, as they are at all the Trust’s schools.”

“The Trust’s massive investments in our learning spaces have created superb new environments for the children including a new library area and IT suite. We have embedded a brilliant new reading scheme and it is great that more and more local families are seeing this and making us their first choice.”

Preston Hedges Trust chief Executive Paul Watson said: “The fact that more parents are selecting Holne Chase as their first-choice school is testament to the hard work and improvements being made by the brilliant new leadership team and whole school community.

“This is a fresh new chapter for the school. We are committed to providing the very best educational experiences and outcomes for children at all our schools and the work of staff, pupils and parents to achieve this at Holne Chase is clearly having a real impact. “