Published: Saturday, 21st November, 2009 10:13am

By Gove, this is a good school!

by Jonathan Kelly

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AN AWARD winning school showed just why it is so good when a shadow minister stopped in.

Uplands Primary School in Sandhurst played host to Michael Gove MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families to demonstrate why the school is consistently rated outstanding by Ofsted.

Mr Gove said: "It's an outstanding school. I've been really impressed by what I've seen. It has an outstanding headteacher supported by governors and teachers.

"I've been talking to the staff about the way the children are assessed and everyone has a very positive attitude and great structure. There is strong leadership and a real passion and that goes into making a good school."

Governors, teachers and Bracknell MP Andrew MacKay joined Mr Gove for his tour on Friday last week which was followed by a presentation from the teachers showing what makes the school special, before a private sit down meeting with the headteacher.

Mr MacKay said: "I wanted Michael, who I hope will be the next Secretary of State for schools as and when we win the general election, to visit Uplands because it is a quite outstanding school with a brilliant team of professionals so he can see best practice first hand and also have an exchange of ideas with the head."

The school that has twice been rated as 'outstanding' by Ofsted, firmly believes in empowering children and encouraging them to take responsibility for their own learning as well as instilling leadership qualities in all its pupils.

Headteacher Anita Warwick said: "It was an opportunity to show him what makes a school a good school and for him to take away ideas so he can make all schools good schools.

"We want him to see the culture of the school which is based on responsibility. We want all the children to know what responsibility is and get them to want to take it. We think it's this leadership training that makes the difference."