Boarding school at De Aston rated as '˜good'

De Aston School, in Willingham Road, provides boarding accommodation for 60 students - with most of them from overseas.

The school has retained its ‘good’ rating in the overall experiences and progress of children and young people, taking into account how well children and young people are helped and protected.

Head of boarding, Andrew Quinlan, said he is ‘very proud’ of the findings from the Ofsted inspection.

He said: “The key to our success is the care we exercise over our boarders and the family feel we create around them.

“Our boarders are a unique part of Market Rasen life and enrich our community hugely.

“Although they are a minority within our school (60 out of a total population of nearly 1,000), De Aston benefits enormously from their presence.”

“I am really proud as Head of Boarding that all of these things were recognised by Ofsted on their visit.”

The report praised De Aston for ensuring that boarders ‘feel safe and secure’, and ‘warm and supportive relationships with most staff’.

The report also praised ‘leaders and managers who are aspirational and have high standards for themselves, their staff and the children’.

Ofsted highlighted that the effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good.

The report said: “The head of boarding is realistic about the need to improve the physical environment, but some improvements are overdue.”

Mr Quinlan stressed that any problems identified by Ofsted have already been rectified.

He said: “For sure, the inspectors made recommendations for further improvement and we have already addressed all of those or have the plans in place to sort the remaining ones by the start of term in September, including a few longer beds for the growth spurts of some of our tall teenagers.”