He visited classrooms and spoke to students about every aspect of school life, from the menus to the outside space, curriculum, resources and quality of teaching. He even saw the school’s two newest residents; guinea pigs Bubble and Squeak!

He visited Mrs Johnson’s class who were starting a history project using genuine court documents dating from 1780 and heard how many of the Year 6 students will be going on a PGL residential this weekend.

Dr Campbell also had the chance to liaise with members of the SLT and spoke to the school’s standards committee, a group of students who regularly scrutinise the work of staff in classrooms, and feed their comments back to senior management.

Julia, who has been at Oakley Vale for two years, said; ‘The best thing about this school is that the children are really involved and I really liked doing plays, they are really fun.’

Dr Campbell said; ‘ It was really interesting touring the school and seeing how all the best work was celebrated and displayed. The breadth and richness of the curriculum was evident and the children were very clear that their voices and opinions mattered. I received a very warm welcome and got to see all aspects of the school in action. Oakley Vale has a very positive and vibrant atmosphere and the children were confident and articulate in sharing their opinions.’

During this series of visits Dr Campbell will visit all of the Trust schools to meet staff, students and see more of their daily operation. He will be at Corby Business Academy tomorrow and will visit the rest of our schools over the coming weeks. Pictures of his visit to Oakley Vale are available here.