Whyteleafe receives Quality Mark for work with vulnerable pupils

​Whyteleafe School is celebrating after receiving its third external honour of what is proving to be a very successful term.

​Since pupils returned to school in September, the school has already been awarded the Woodland Trust’s Green Schools Gold Award for its green policies, and been shortlisted to be a beneficiary of the local Tesco Bags of Help environmental initiative.

Now Whyteleafe has completed a hat-trick after education charity Achievement for All (AFA) awarded the school its Quality Mark for its work in improving the well-being, resilience and self-esteem of its pupils who are vulnerable to underachievement, particularly in the fields of reading, writing and maths.

Since teaming up with AFA, Whyteleafe has seen a notable improvement in areas of work such as working with parents and carers on individuals’ personal targets.

The Quality Mark is awarded in the second year of a school’s partnership with AFA after assessment of work in categories including strategic planning, quality of teaching and learning and community relationships.

“Whyteleafe have shown a high quality of leadership and teamwork, and most importantly, the target groups have made more than expected progress and are closing the gap with their peers,” said AFA’s regional lead, Kris Wodehouse.

“Our programmes are designed to be a whole school improvement tool and Whyteleafe has shown a continued commitment and success in improving outcomes for their children. Huge congratulations to the teachers, parents, carers and children for all their hard work.”

Whyteleafe is a member of the Surrey-based GLF Schools multi-academy trust, and head teacher John Williams said the award was something in which the whole school should take pride.

“Inclusivity and a sense of being part of something are hugely important in building a school community, so to receive recognition like this from an external organisation is extremely positive, and testament to a huge amount of good work being done by a lot of people at Whyteleafe,” he explained.