The Spencer Academies Trust is delighted to announce completion of the Trust membership process for Ashwood Spencer Academy.
Located in the Osmaston area of Derby, Ashwood is closely located with Ofsted good and outstanding Spencer schools, including Wyndham Primary Academy in nearby Alvaston.
Prior to rebranding at the start of September, Ashwood Spencer was known as Osmaston Primary Academy. While Osmaston had a reputation for being a warm and friendly primary school and accordingly valued in the community, the school has struggled to deliver against expected outcomes for pupils in recent years.
The Spencer Academies Trust has provided support to Osmaston since the start of 2018, and school and Trust staff have developed close working relationships.
The school has particularly benefited from support from Wyndham Primary Academy. Experienced Principal Paula Baines-Chambers was first seconded from Wyndham and then applied for and was appointed as Principal at Osmaston.
While over 80% of the student body at Wyndham meet or pass age-related expectations. At Osmaston, where the student population has a similar demographic make-up, the proportion of pupils meeting age-related expectations was just above 30% in 2016-17. The Spencer Academies Trust now expects the newly renamed Ashwood Spencer to register rapid and significant improvement, gradually bringing results at Ashwood into line with surrounding trust primaries.
Mrs Baines-Chambers said: “I have felt at home at Ashwood Spencer from the first, and am so pleased that the process to bring Ashwood to a new home at Spencer has now been completed in turn. I have been given a warm welcome by parents and children here and have been very impressed by how supportive the school community is. While results haven’t always reflected the school’s strengths, we have already seen a huge change with trust support, and are becoming another very happy and successful trust primary.”
Spencer Trust Chief Executive Paul West said: “We are delighted to be able to welcome Ashwood children to the Trust family of schools.
“Ashwood is exactly the kind of school where Spencer has developed an outstanding record for school improvement, and we are well known in Derby as a Trust that partners with primary schools with great foundations and supports them on the journey from ‘Requires Improvement’ to ‘Outstanding’.
Spencer Academies Trust Chairman Peter Marples said: “schools like Ashwood Spencer are central to our ability to deliver an outstanding, nationally regarded, standard of education across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.
“By developing clusters of primary and secondary schools in areas like Chellaston and Alvaston, we can work towards giving children a great education from the start of their time in school to their choice of onward destination; while the partnerships that we develop between schools like Wyndham and Ashwood allow us to deliver more for local children.”