Schools North East Celebrates Westgate Hill Primary Academy's Success

Westgate Hill Primary Academy, a member of the Laidlaw Schools Trust, recently featured in Schools North East's blog, which celebrated the school's 'Outstanding' Ofsted rating. 

In October 2021, Ofsted rated Westgate Hill Primary Academy 'Outstanding' on every category of assessment—a remarkable improvement since its last inspection in 2016 in which the school was judged 'Inadequate'. 

Schools North East, the first and only school-led regional network in the UK, with over 1150 schools, highlighted Westgate Hill's achievement in their blog post "Ofsted success for North East schools."

Below is an excerpt from their blog post.

Read Schools North East's full blog post

Westgate Hill Primary Academy 

Huge congratulations to Westgate Hill Primary Academy, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which has achieved an Ofsted Outstanding grade!

The inspection report described the school as ‘inclusive’, stating that it promoted strong values using words such as ‘welcoming’, ‘respectful’ and ‘understanding all points of view’, which are reflected in the behaviours of the children who attend. School staff were found to be ‘understanding’ and had the pupils’ safety and wellbeing at heart in the decisions. Alongside this, the Head of School and leadership team are reported as leading with a ‘strong moral purpose’ as well as having ‘an exceptional understanding of the needs of young children.’

It has been a long journey since November 2016 when the school received an inadequate (special measures) inspection outcome which was followed by academisation into the Laidlaw Schools Trust in September 2017. It has been clear that the staff have put in a huge amount of hard work along with the support of their academy trust to receive the glowing comments in the Ofsted report.

Executive Head Teacher of the Academy, Keeley Wood commented:

‘I feel immensely privileged to have had the opportunity to work with such a dedicated team of staff and leaders over the last four years. Their drive, resilience and determination to improve the school community has been incredible. The trust and our sponsor Lord Laidlaw have nurtured, supported and championed Westgate Hill, allowing it to grow and excel. All staff, children and parents are all absolutely delighted with this well deserved outcome.’