A JUNIOR school is seeking to change its name as its head teacher invites parents to see for themselves that it is “on the up”.

Branksome Heath Junior is part of a 'federation' with Sylvan Infant School across the road.

Suzy Hayward, executive head teacher for the two schools, is consulting over changing their names to Livingstone Road Infants and Junior.

Poole has a surplus of primary school places and entry numbers have fallen at the Parkstone school.

Ofsted found in 2015 that Branksome Heath required improvement, but Mrs Hayward says performance is improving and is urging parents to see for themselves.

“It’s going to take time to change the data but if they look at the school, look at the children and at the teaching and learning, we’re already on that journey of change,” she said.

The physical environment has changed, with an emphasis on reading throughout the school. A new library, dubbed the Book Factory, is set to open on World Book Day – complete with time clocks for children to punch in and out. An Alice in Wonderland-themed outdoor reading area is also being developed.

“We’ve developed the environment and instilled pride in the environment and therefore the children are proud of it and proud of their school,” said Mrs Hayward.

“On the data outcomes at the moment, we would still regard ourselves as ‘requiring improvement’ this year but we’re going for ‘good’ next year.”

Mrs Hayward wants the changes to be reflected in a change of identity for both schools from the autumn term.

So far, parents have backed the change of name but been more hesitant about changing Branksome Heath’s school colour from maroon to green.

She said the schools worked closely together, with staff and leadership from the two sites meeting together.

“We’ve started to federate to be a primary school over two sites. We can’t ever be one school – we’d lose too much money and we are two sites so we need to keep those funding streams,” said Mrs Hayward.

She added: “We’re on the up but we need people to come and see us and walk around the school and feel the change in the culture. We’ve had a couple of people from the local authority in and they’ve said ‘Goodness me, it’s a different place’.”