St Nicholas CE Primary headteacher praised after inspection joy

Staff and pupils from St Nicholas Primary School celebrate after being rated outstanding by Ofsted. Pictured are Amelia Mottershead, Megan Dunkley, Emelia Carlton., Joe Hartenfeld and Owen McConnell with headteacher Andy Mellor.

As revealed exclusively by The Gazette on Thursday, St Nicholas CE Primary in Marton swept the board following an inspection by the school watchdog earlier this month.

It is the first time a mainstream Blackpool school has been awarded an ‘outstanding’ grading since Westcliff Primary in 2009.

Gordon Marsden, MP for Blackpool South, said: “I am absolutely delighted at the outstanding report St Nicholas has received from Ofsted.

“On all my recent visits I have been hugely impressed by the lead that Andy Mellor as headteacher and all his team at the school have givenin creating an atmosphere where academic excellence is married to strong ethical values and a sense of involvement from its pupils.

“That goes from the excellent questions they have posed me from their class groups and school council to their emphasis on their own green projects including their great fruit and vegetable garden initiative which I visited last year and which deservedly carried off a prize in the recent Blackpool Civic Trust awards I attended.”

Coun Graham Cain, cabinet secretary for Blackpool Council, said: “This report makes excellent reading and is just rewards for the hard work put in by the staff and leadership at St Nicholas school.

“The children who go to the school are always courteous, polite and hardworking and are given a fantastic grounding by the school to go on and achieve their potential later in life.

“Anybody connected with the school will know what a great job they do and they are rightly being applauded for all their hard work. I’m delighted with how successfully the school has been improved in such a short time frame.”