Burnley school in nation's 100 '˜top performing'

Minister of State for Schools Nick Gibb said the Church Street school is in the top 100 in terms of progress their pupils make between Key Stage One and the end of Key Stage Two.

Mr Gibb said in his letter addressed to Head Teacher Catherine Greenwood: “Thank you for your work in continuing to drive towards high standards of educational achievement and congratulations again to you and your staff for your hard work and professionalism.”

Mrs Greenwood has been in charge at St Peter’s for five years and said it was a welcome surprise to receive the letter as they came back from their Christmas break.

“It was lovely to receive it and we are all so proud – we knew we had done well but we didn’t expect to be in the top 100 schools in the country,” said Mrs Greenwood, who has 193 pupils at St Peter’s. “We have a saying: ‘if you can’t do something, you just can’t do it yet’ and we encourage our pupils not to give up.

“Both the staff and the pupils work a lot on growth mindset and it’s about making them realise that people improve through hard work, effort and determination.

“It’s about making pupils more resilient in their learning and that it is fine to make a mistake, as long as you learn from it. It’s also about learning from each other’s successess as well. It’s lovely to have this recognition. The pupils and staff are all proud.”

Mr Gibb, in his letter, stated: “I am writing to congratulate you, your staff and your pupils for the progress your children are making.

“We want to ensure that every child progresses to the very best of their ability in reading, writing and mathematics so they have fluency in these subjects to enable them to succeed at secondary school and beyond.

“Your school is clearly putting great effort into achieving this.”