Marland Hill Primary School awarded Inclusion Quality Mark

Marland Hill Community Primary School in Rochdale has been given the Inclusion Quality Mark (IQM).

The assessors report said: “During this IQM assessment I was particularly impressed by the teamwork and enthusiasm of the IQM Coordinators, namely the Senior Leadership Team. The head teacher clearly fostered this positive approach and supported the work. A cohesive approach from the team showed that all wanted the very best for the children in their care.”

Lesley Cryer, Assistant Headteacher at the school said: “We are really pleased to get it and are really happy to see that the work we are doing is recognised.”

The Inclusion Quality Mark is a standard for assessing schools against a nationally recognised framework on inclusion.

To be awarded the mark, the school was assessed over a number of days.

Lesley added: “Depending on the size of the learning environment, will depend on how long the assessment is so we were assessed over two days.”

The IQM framework is designed to create a dialogue about inclusion with objective and supportive evaluation by the IQM team.

To be awarded the mark, assessors looked at the schools learning environment, spoke to different groups of children and spoke to the school council, the community cohesion group, parents, governors and teachers.

“This is something we have been doing for a long time anyway so this now nationally recognises us as an inclusion setting and learning environment,” added Lesley.

Marland Hill is the third school in Rochdale to be awarded the national Inclusion Quality Mark.