A school has pulled itself up from the lowest Ofsted grade after improvements in its record keeping.

Temple Ewell C of E Primary School near Dover got an “inadequate” grading in leadership and management last year, which led it to getting the same headline categorisation by the education watchdog.

But now changes have led it to getting a “good” rating in this, pushing up the overall effectiveness grading to the same level.

Inspectors had downgraded the school after a visit in July 2022 for not maintaining clear and comprehensive enough records.

Both the school and the wider trust took immediate action and Ofsted, which returned in July, now says the school’s record-keeping is “robust and effective”.

The changes included commissioning an external organisation to fully review all safeguarding policies and procedures, particularly those related to record-keeping.

The school also adopted a new electronic system for recording concerns and enhanced the monitoring and recording of all safeguarding incidents.

‘We took immediate action to improve our record-keeping...’

Aquila, The Diocese of Canterbury Academies Trust, which Temple Ewell school is part of, has rolled out additional safeguarding training to all its 16 schools.

The inspectors said that since their last visit the school’s leaders had introduced “new and robust systems to record and monitor safeguarding concerns effectively”.

“Pupils feel very safe in school and know that there are many staff that they can talk to if they are worried,” the latest report states.

Head teacher Angela Matthews said: “We took immediate action to improve our record-keeping and are confident that this is now of the highest standards.”

In both the latest and previous report, Ofsted said the quality of education and the personal development of pupils were “outstanding”.

Behaviour and attitude and early years provision were categorised as “good” on both occasions.

Mrs Matthews said: “All staff have continued to work tirelessly since our last inspection to provide the very best education for all our pupils and we are pleased that inspectors recognised this in our recent visit.”

Annie Wiles, chief executive of Aquila, said: “Safeguarding our pupils is one of the most important aspects of what we do and this, of course, includes meticulous record keeping. We take this extremely seriously.

“We are delighted that inspectors have recognised that the quality of education at Temple Ewell and pupils’ personal development are outstanding.”