New headteacher off to a flying start at De Aston

De Aston School has maintained its '˜good' Ofsted rating '“ with the new headteacher at the helm off to a flying start.
Full of praise: the Ofsted report highly commended De Aston on pupil safeguarding, pupils progress and spiritual,  moral and cultural development EMN-170702-083509001Full of praise: the Ofsted report highly commended De Aston on pupil safeguarding, pupils progress and spiritual,  moral and cultural development EMN-170702-083509001
Full of praise: the Ofsted report highly commended De Aston on pupil safeguarding, pupils progress and spiritual, moral and cultural development EMN-170702-083509001

Simon Porter, who has worked at the school since 1999, officially took up the post of headteacher in January.

Since taking up his post, he has been off to a flying start with the school continuing to be ‘good’ following an 
Ofsted inspection on January 17.

He has described himself as ‘ambitious’ and as a person ‘with the passion and energy’ to take De Aston School ‘into the future’.

In the report, Her Majesty’s Inspector Simon Hollingsworth praised the school’s senior leaders who ‘closely monitor pupils progress’, which means ‘pupils make good progress across most of their subjects’.

He also said of the senior leaders that they ‘have high expectations for your pupils and are committed to seeing each fulfil their potential’.

Mr Hollingsworth added that the school ‘has undertaken a great deal of work to address areas for improvement’, which included setting tasks to challenge pupils to ‘deepen their understanding’ and setting challenges ‘at the right level of difficulty’ for 
pupils.

The school was also praised for providing ‘comprehensive training’ for staff and for ‘creating a culture of vigilance among staff in relation to safeguarding’.

Other praise commended the ‘strong progress’ of lower ability students, the overall attendance at the school and that all pupils whom inspectors met said ‘they felt safe at the school.’

In a letter to parents, Mr Porter said it was ‘an honour to lead the school into an exciting future’.

He wrote: “At De Aston we believe that no matter what your ability is, effort is what ignites that ability and turns it into success.

“We want our learners to develop a real grit, an ability to keep going and push through when things get tough.

“We are a good school.

“We have been a good school consistently for all the time I have been at De Aston but I am ambitious that we 
will be a beacon for 
educational excellence 
within Lincolnshire and beyond.”

Next week, the Market Rasen Mail will be chatting to De Aston’s Simon Porter about his new role in the school.