Lowick and Holy Island First Schools

School context

This very small Church of England Controlled school works in soft federation with Holy Island (Aided) school to serve a rural community in North Northumberland. The particularity of each school’s context is respected while the advantages of frequently learning together are fully grasped. The school’s building and grounds have been expertly developed to provide a rich environment for learning. All pupils are from a White British heritage. There is a higher than average proportion of pupils with special educational needs and/or with disabilities.

The distinctiveness and effectiveness of Holy Island Church of England Aided First School as a Church of England school are outstanding

Building on the outstanding achievements that were noted during its first denominational inspection, Lowick School has continued to develop even further. Creative leadership, focussed governance, loving and talented teaching, all combine to deepen the school’s already outstanding Christian ethos, to strengthen its partnership with Holy Island School and to offer generous Christian education of the very highest quality.

Established strengths

• Outstanding spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is enabled through the establishment of a loving, safe, transparent, generous and rigorous Christian ethos.
• Outstandingly co-ordinated, scrupulously prepared, corporately led worship enriches the life of the whole school and helps with the process of embodying its values.
• Outstanding practice by the Headteacher, combined with the honesty, realism and commitment of the Governing Body, contribute to the school’s outstandingly effective leadership and management as a church school.

Focus for development

• The school recognizes and values its partnership with the local church and sees this as a key feature in its future development.

The school, through its distinctive Christian character, is outstanding at meeting the needs of all learners

Day begins at Lowick School with half an hour spent in tutor groups in which the children read, supporting each other and being supported by their tutor, and also during which opportunity is given to share how each person is feeling. From the very beginning, therefore, purposeful learning is potently combined with attention to the state of the whole person, child and adult alike. This, combined with the circle time that punctuates the school day, helps to establish the school’s outstandingly enabling, supportive and happy ethos. Every person matters and knows that they do. Different life-events are handled completely appropriately. Positive behavioural norms are established, allowing any (extremely rare) divergence from them to be swiftly checked. Respect for the person, for the school body as a whole and for the environment is made tangible. The fluctuating nature of the school’s population (sometimes including children from Holy Island, sometimes not, according to the tides) is thus consummately handled. Disruption is eliminated because the children have learnt to listen to each other and the adults with exceptional attentiveness. The result is one of the most positive Christian environments that I have encountered. Christian values are articulated through living them, thus giving individuals the freedom to espouse them if they choose to do so. The adults work together in a highly sophisticated team, revealing thereby to the children the power and the success that can be derived from trust, clear communication, attention to feelings and scrupulous honesty. The children’s outstanding social, moral, spiritual and cultural development is enabled by the fact that they experience the values and concepts that are being taught. I was particularly struck by the transparency of the way in which the children’s own suggestions and contributions to the day are woven into what happens in school, with for example a spontaneous play offered by one tutor group to the whole school being welcomed, evaluated and reflected upon right until home time. Moreover, the creation of such a safe environment for the whole school allows the children to experience learning that acknowledges their physicality as well as their emotional, social and other needs: a child feels safe enough to fall asleep because it is the end of a day at the end of only his second week in school and he is relaxed in worship; a child settles down to pray leaning against a teacher and her friend. This is embodied learning of the highest quality. I agree with one governor’s estimation that ‘this is the most creative educational environment that I have ever experienced’.

The impact of collective worship on the school community is outstanding

Collective worship is jointly planned for both Holy Island and Lowick schools. However, it is delivered in ways that are appropriate to each school’s context. I saw evidence relating to the previous day’s worship (in which I had shared on Holy Island) during the inspection of Lowick. The Lowick children had responded just as creatively as their Holy Island friends, but in ways that were particular to them. This rootedness of the worship in the particular context of the community at the time was further evidenced during the worship in which I subsequently shared in school. This worship involved both cohorts of children and celebrated the achievements of the week. Rather than this being a simple litany of teacher-chosen success there was a sense of the whole school body participating in both congratulating those who received awards and discerning some of those who should receive one. For example, there was open discussion among the staff and students about which of a number of possible candidates should be given the Barnabas award for encouragement. One candidate was appraised by a fellow student as ‘maybe a little bit encouraging, but not all the time’. The student in question fully accepted this appraisal and joined enthusiastically in congratulating the eventual recipient. I was struck by the honesty, rigour, enthusiasm and love that were demonstrated during this process and throughout the worship; one could suggest that this indicates worship that is truly offered though the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is clear how the worship reinforces the school’s ethos and vice versa. When at the end a child spontaneously offered to lead the whole school in prayer this was a natural culmination of a deeply meaningful time of corporate celebration and reflection. The collective worship at Lowick School is one of its outstanding strengths and helps to establish the embodiment of values which is the school’s most distinctive feature.

The effectiveness of the religious education is outstanding

The Religious Education is scrupulously planned, lovingly delivered and extremely effectively monitored. The school’s investment of time in organising the whole team both to teach the subject and to discuss and reflect as a team on each child’s attainment and progress leads to outstanding levels of achievement. The work of the subject co-ordinator is a model of its type. Religious Education is delivered at Lowick, so the children from Holy Island have in this subject the opportunity to engage with a wider range of opinion and ages than is always possible in their own small cohort. Conversely, the Lowick children are able to benefit from the contribution of the Holy Islanders, with their distinctive perspective on the world and sense of Christian heritage. The school ensures that Attainment targets 1 and 2 are both met by skilfully offering embodied learning: a variety of techniques is used including drama of different types, teachers participate while also enabling, all adults contribute seamlessly and the school works together to create a framework in which the children encounter and explore the subject ‘from within’. Most importantly, the school is always committed to improving the experience and future developments will include visits to a synagogue and a mosque.

The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the school as a church school is outstanding

The Headteacher’s outstanding contribution, together with the Governing Body’s clear grasp of strategic and developmental issues, ensures that the effectiveness of the leadership and management of the school as a church school is outstanding. The Headteacher has assembled a staff team that is creative, highly-skilled, and able to function with rigour and flexibility. Her deployment of resources so that the team has time to work together properly and her recognition that investment of time in shared school ethos-building activities will pay dividends in terms of learning outcomes is wise and brave. As in the previous inspection, the SEF and the SIAS Toolkits are models of their type, demonstrating the clarity and accuracy of the school’s leaders’ and governors’ self-perception. Recognised areas for on-going development include the school’s partnership with the local parish church and its hope to extend the children’s understanding of other world faiths. The school’s outstanding ability to develop further is grounded in the hard work of the staff and governors, their rigorous honesty, and their commitment to developing Lowick as a genuinely Christian environment for learning. Aspirations for working more closely with the parish church should particularly be encouraged and supported by diocesan colleagues.

School context

This extremely small school serves the community of Holy Island. It works in soft federation with Lowick Church of England First School. The children are taught at Lowick, tides permitting. At other times, the resident teacher on the island teaches the children in the newly-refurbished Island school building. All pupils are of White British heritage and no pupil has a statement of special educational need. Teaching is in a mixed-age group.

The distinctiveness and effectiveness of Holy Island Church of England Aided First School as a Church of England school are outstanding

Education has been at the heart of island life since Aidan established his school on Holy Island as part of the first monastic community there. In many ways, Holy Island First School now embodies a similarly distinctive Christian education, fitted for the twenty-first century. In the cradle of English Christianity a new generation of children is being offered outstanding education for life.

Established strengths

• The school’s outstanding ethos establishes it as a Christian community that is distinctive, open, welcoming, affirming and with a clear awareness of its role in the life of the Island.
• Worship is deeply respectful to the spiritual and personal developmental needs of the worshippers and is both authentic and appropriately challenging.
• Outstanding team teaching, organisation and curriculum planning ensure that Religious Education is a high point in the children’s week and lead to very high standards of achievement.
• A Governing Body that deploys outstanding knowledge of and commitment to the school, working with an outstanding head teacher and school team, ensures that this Christian foundation is purposeful, forward-looking and capable of outstanding growth.

Focus for development

• The school recognizes and values its partnership with the local church and sees this as a key feature in its future development.

The school, through its distinctive Christian character, is outstanding at meeting the needs of all learners

As soon as you enter this school, you are aware that you are in an environment that has been lovingly formed to cater for the needs of each learner. Life on Holy Island is obviously shaped by the tides and this means that the Holy Island school community has a distinctiveness that draws on the relationships that exist between the children and their families in the tight-knit Island community. However, the connection of the island to the mainland, with all that this means in terms of pilgrims and visitors who bring resources into the community, also allows the children to participate in education in the different context of Lowick. One of the great strengths of the school is that it affirms the chidren’s Island identity while also giving them a sense of identity in the wider community through their participation in and contribution to life at Lowick. From the earliest of ages, therefore, the children are growing in their understanding of the multiple layers of influences and opportunities that shape life in the world today. They know who they are, they know that they are learning in a very special Christian environment, they know that they contribute to life in Lowick and they know that they are citizens of a nation and of the world. This, together with many other carefully structured activities such as the afternoon (or morning) greeting in which the children and adults share in helping each other to articulate their feelings, ensures that the school offers outstanding opportunities for spiritual, social, moral and cultural development. There is a level of mutual respect and care among the children of this school that I have rarely encountered anywhere. The teachers, and in particular the Island teacher with whom the children have the greatest contact, do more than just model the school’s values; they live them. This helps to transform participation at Holy Island School into a whole-life experience. As one child said, when I asked about her favourite word from collective worship ‘forgiveness, because it means say “sorry” and act like you really mean it’.

The impact of collective worship on the school community is outstanding

Collective worship is jointly planned for both Holy Island and Lowick schools. However, it is delivered in ways that are appropriate to each school’s context. The worship in which I shared on Holy Island involved further reflection on the theme of stewardship. This was building on the previous week’s beach clean and also related to an on-going exploration of the importance of the environment. The invitation offered to the children to make sentences beginning with different letters was eagerly accepted and produced statements such as ‘don’t trash the world’ and ‘humility helps us all’. Very quickly, the children then realised that they had sentences whose first letters could be arranged to form the word ‘Stewardship’. Having wondered at this, they went on to explore the question of whether it is God’s world or ‘our’ world, and talked a little about Genesis 1, before ending with spontaneous and child-led prayer. I describe this worship because it combined reflection, wonder, Biblical awareness, formal prayer (the Lord’s Prayer) and spontaneity, and because there was a real sense of community established between the children and the adults present that was respectful and appropriate. This was not a one-off occasion. It is absolutely typical of what happens in the school.

The effectiveness of the religious education is outstanding

The Religious Education is scrupulously planned, lovingly delivered and extremely effectively monitored. The school’s investment of time in organising the whole team both to teach the subject and to discuss and reflect as a team on each child’s attainment and progress leads to outstanding levels of achievement. The work of the subject co-ordinator is a model of its type. Religious Education is delivered at Lowick, so the children from Holy Island have in this subject the opportunity to engage with a wider range of opinion and ages than is always possible in their own small cohort. Conversely, the Lowick children are able to benefit from the contribution of the Holy Islanders, with their distinctive perspective on the world and sense of Christian heritage. The school ensures that Attainment targets 1 and 2 are both met by skilfully offering embodied learning: a variety of techniques is used including drama of different types, teachers participate while also enabling, all adults contribute seamlessly and the school works together to create a framework in which the children encounter and explore the subject ‘from within’. Most importantly, the school is always committed to improving the experience and future developments will include visits to a synagogue and a mosque.

The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the school as a church school is outstanding

Excellent knowledge of the school itself and of the Island community is deployed by the committed, involved and engagingly frank governing body to work with the outstanding Headteacher and her staff in the leadership, management and development of the school. The small size of the school never entices the governors to short-cut their responsibilities. On the contrary, it actually enables the school’s interested adults to be intimately involved. There is a passion in the adults of Holy Island School that is infectious. Staff development is as important as children’s development, and it of course actually underpins the children’s development. This is an excellent context in which to begin a teaching career, as the current Holy Island post holder is ably demonstrating. The partnership with the parish church is considered to be of the utmost importance; there is a real hope for mutual enrichment as part of the next stage of the school’s development. This, together with fully implementing the possibilities of hosting other groups and schools in the recently redeveloped part of the school building, ensure that there is ample scope for even further developing the school as a centre of hospitable Christian learning.