A BIG success story in education this week came with the news that Carterton Primary School had positively sprung out of special measures.

It follows last week’s news that the Government had failed to provide Wood Green School with enough funding to help get its academy plan off the ground.

While the school has expressed its frustration that it is still locked in special measures while teachers believe things to be clearly improving in the classroom, the Carterton story provides at least some relief. The school jumped from the grading of “inadequate” to “good” in one go, and now hopes to aim for “outstanding”.

Wood Green School head Rob Shadbolt said he was very optimistic his school could follow suit by coming out of special measures in time for the summer holidays. Clearly there is huge pressure on schools to prove they can meet the targets and it is hugely frustrating for schools which have made significant improvements and are clearly succeeding in every other sense than a tick on a form, to have to wait before Ofsted officially brands them to be a success.

It raises questions about our target-orientated society.