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Seacroft girls-only school is back on track, say inspectors
Leeds's only state girls' school has been praised by inspectors after a challenging 15 months.
Parklands in Seacroft has passed its latest Ofsted inspection after rapid progress in raising standards.
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The 717-pupil school improved in areas including teaching standards, student achievement and attendance and has lost its "notice to improve" from March last year.
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"Everyone connected with the school has worked enormously hard to achieve this report," said acting head teacher Helen Lane, who took charge in October. "It's been a real team effort and everyone has played a part.
"We have also had a lot of input from Education Leeds consultants. Our job now is to continue the rate of progress and make the school even better."
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Mrs Lane, who was seconded to Parklands from her role as deputy head at Priesthorpe High in Pudsey, was described as a "strong and purposeful" leader in the recently-published Ofsted report.
Inspectors said the school, in one of the most deprived areas of the city, was rapidly improving the standard of education it offered. Teaching, leadership, the relevance of the curriculum to pupils and attendance had all improved considerably.
The school, where a third of pupils are from mainly Pakistani backgrounds, was also praised for promoting racial and religious tolerance.
The report added: "The school has worked very hard and successfully to improve teaching and learning, which are now satisfactory and improving.
"Teaching is now effective enough to overcome the legacy of underachievement which has blighted the school in recent years."
Parklands hit the headlines earlier this month when it became the first school in Leeds to be affected by swine flu, when a member of staff tested positive for the illness.
Mrs Lane took charge after long-serving and much-respected headteacher Liz Bisson dramatically quit the school last autumn. Neil Clephan, head of high-achieving Roundhay School, was also drafted in part-time.
Since then, Parklands has been earmarked to become an academy – essentially a state-funded independent school – with plans to swap sites with City of Leeds School in Woodhouse.
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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