Bury St Edmunds Riverwalk School receives ‘good’ rating after change in senior leadership

A school which provides places for children with learning difficulties is celebrating receiving a ‘good’ rating after its latest Ofsted inspection.

Inspectors visited Riverwalk School, in Mayfield Road, Bury St Edmunds, in July.

It was the follow up to an ungraded inspection during the same month last year when it was found to be ‘good’ but also in decline.

Riverwalk School joined the Consortium Trust in September last year, which lead to a new headteacher, Lukasz Rumanowski, being appointed, and a new senior leadership team.

The latest report has praised the school in a number of areas and rated it ‘good’ across all criteria including quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, early years provision, sixth-form provision.

Mr Rumanowski said: “We worked very hard under the consortium’s guidance to ensure the curriculum is robust enough to show ambition and to be able to offer aspirational progress for all of our pupils.

“Every child deserves to reach their full potential and our curriculum previously was not offering enough challenge for pupils.

“I believe we are not at the end of our journey. There is still work to be done and the report recognises that, so I think it is fair.

“We have been scrutinised very carefully but I am very happy that the progress we have made during the last twelve months has been recognised.

“It will be really good for us to start a new school year with this news and great to know that we are waving one word judgments goodbye, by being a good school.”

Riverwalk School caters for pupils aged between three and 19 years old, who have severe learning difficulties, profound and multiple learning difficulties, as well as those with autism.

All 206 pupils have an Education, Health and Care Plan.

Areas for improvement include communication among staff about the changes made and governance.