| Judith Grylls insists that she is
no `` Super Head创, but during her three years at Osmani Primary School in
East London, England, it磗 Ofsted test scores have shot up seven fold,
making it the most improved in the Country.
When she arrived in 1998 the school, where seven out of
ten pupils are eligible for free meals, had failed it磗 Ofsted examination.
Of a possible score of 300 for the tests, the school managed only 38 which
meant that just a handful of children reached the standard for English,
mathematics and science.
This year it磗 score was 268 with all but four of it磗
37 children aged 11 reaching the expected level for English. The children
just shrugged off their media visitors, getting on with their maths in small
groups ``selling创 fruit and vegetables from makeshift market stalls in
the classrooms.
It is a result to rival schools in the suburbs but Osmani
serves one of the poorest parts of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London,
overshadowed on three sides by council housing, some of it derelict.
Almost all of its 337 pupils are Bangladeshi and arrive at
the school with little or no English. They continue to speak Syleti in their
homes but still 89 per cent of 11 -year-olds reached the standard for
English. 86 per cent for maths and 92 per cent for science.
In the English test 35 per cent reached level 5, the
standard expected of a 13- year-old, 19 per cent reached it in maths and 22
per cent in science.
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Miss Grylls did not intend to
stay at Osmani when the local education authority seconded her from the
borough, `` It was a challenge because a lot of the staff had left and we
had to recruit new teachers which is very difficult if you磖e an inner-city
school in special measures,创 she said.
She was saved, she says, by five ``fantastic创 teachers
from overseas and her success in recruiting newly qualified students.
Finally she decided to apply for the permanent headship and was unanimously
appointed.
The Government磗 literacy and numeracy hours have helped
raise standards, she says, although the school has rejected the method of
teaching reading in the strategy, substituting Jolly Phonics, a more
traditional and faster way of familiarising children with the relationship
between letters and sounds.
She has also sought out as much adult help in the
classroom as possible so that children get extra opportunities to converse
in English with learning mentors, assistants and 100 employees of Merrill
Lynch, the commercial bankers, who read with the children each week.
`` Our teachers work incredibly hard and they don磘
complain,创 said Miss Grylls. ``I磎 delighted that their work is being
recognised.创
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