Downe Manor Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy coming to school and are safe. They make friends and feel happy. They typically said this is because of the positive relationships that are formed with their peers and with staff.

Pupils are polite, enthusiastic and respectful.

Pupils, including children in the early years, behave well. They work hard in lessons and play sensibly with their friends at social times.

Instances of bullying are very rare. If it does happen, staff act quickly to resolve any issues. However, pupils do not achieve as well as they should, including in the early years.

This is because the curriculum is not sufficiently developed in several subjects.

Lead...ers arrange opportunities for pupils to contribute to school life and to help with leading assemblies. Leaders also organise a range of clubs and educational visits for pupils to take part in.

These include sports clubs and the opportunity to compete in tournaments with other schools. Pupils also really like the new extra-curricular opportunities in music, especially the choir. They enjoy learning about different artists and making links with contemporary culture.

Leaders teach pupils about responsibility. Their plans include providing pupils with opportunities to apply what they learn, for example by taking on the role of e-safety ambassadors. Pupils value visits from external speakers, such as the police.

These visits help to teach pupils about staying safe, including how to stay safe online.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

All pupils have access to a broad curriculum. Leaders are working on developing their overall curriculum thinking and the training that staff will need.

In some subjects, such as history and mathematics, curriculum thinking is clearly organised and helps pupils to develop knowledge and skills over time. For example, in history, pupils confidently discuss what they know and remember from learning about important historical figures. In the subjects that are well organised, leaders have also made helpful links with the early years curriculum.

Because of this, pupils build successfully on the knowledge they develop in the Reception Year.

However, leaders' plans in several other subjects, such as music and physical education (PE), are in the early stages of development. It is not clear what important knowledge and skills pupils should know or in what order these should be learned.

This hinders pupils' learning and progression through the curriculum.

Leaders prioritise early reading. They have ensured that all staff are trained effectively in order to deliver the early reading and phonics programme.

Staff introduce new letters and sounds to pupils in a logical order. This helps pupils, including children in the early years, to learn new sounds in a systematic way. Leaders ensure that pupils take home books and activities to practise the sounds they learn in class.

This plays a crucial role in helping pupils to improve their reading fluency and accuracy. Leaders provide effective support for any pupils who may need further help in reading. As a result, these pupils catch up quickly.

In some subjects, teachers make helpful checks in class to see what pupils know and understand from the curriculum. However, in subjects where leaders' curriculum thinking is not clear, for instance PE and personal, social, health and economic education, this does not happen consistently well. This is because teachers do not know what important knowledge they should be checking for.

Consequently, teachers do not have an accurate picture of what pupils understand from the curriculum. Pupils' misconceptions are not systematically addressed.

Some teaching presents subject matter clearly.

It recaps prior learning to help pupils to access what is being taught next. For example, in mathematics, pupils are prompted to recall important facts and methods. However, this is inconsistent.

For example, in the early years, some learning is not planned to develop children's knowledge securely. Children are not as well prepared for Year 1 as they could be.

In some subjects, curriculum leaders have benefited from purposeful subject training.

This enables them to support teachers in developing their own subject knowledge. However, curriculum training in other subjects is in the early stages. Teachers have not received the training they need to deliver the planned curriculum effectively.

Some lack the subject knowledge required to develop and extend pupils' understanding.

Pupils behave sensibly in lessons. The school environment is calm and orderly.

Pupils are ambitious in their learning and willing to try, even when learning is difficult. Staff are highly committed to the school's programme for developing pupils' personal development. Pupils are encouraged to apply for leadership roles in the school and then help to educate and mentor other pupils.

Leaders ensure that pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are, in the main, supported well. At times, however, adaptations to the planned learning are not well targeted to pupils' needs. Due to this, pupils with SEND are not learning as successfully as they could.

Leaders have positive, professional relationships with staff. Leaders and governors have an accurate understanding of many of the improvements that need to happen in the school. However, leaders have not checked the quality of the curriculum with sufficient rigour.

This includes, for example, how effectively teaching introduces new ideas and concepts.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders arrange regular safeguarding training for staff.

This ensures that staff remain alert to the signs which could indicate that a pupil might be at risk from harm. Staff understand the steps that they must follow if they have concerns about a pupil. Leaders know pupils and their families well.

This knowledge helps to ensure that any vulnerable pupils benefit from appropriate specialist support when necessary.

Through the curriculum, pupils learn about how to keep themselves safe online and outside in the wider community. They understand the features of healthy relationships.

Leaders work with parents and carers to ensure that pupils attend school regularly.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In some foundation subjects, such as PE and music, the curriculum has not been fully developed. This means that leaders have not identified the important knowledge that they want pupils to know and remember or the order in which this knowledge should be taught.

It is therefore difficult for pupils to build and extend their subject knowledge and skills in these particular curriculum areas. This includes pupils with SEND. Leaders should ensure that they develop their curriculum thinking across all subjects so that all pupils develop their subject-specific knowledge and skills well.

• The subject knowledge of some subject leaders is underdeveloped. As a result, these leaders are unable to fully support and train teachers to deliver the curriculum. Leaders should ensure that all subject leaders and teachers are well trained to deliver the curriculum.

• Leaders have not checked how effectively staff deliver the curriculum. Teaching in some subjects does not deliver the curriculum as well as leaders intend. This reduces how well pupils, including those with SEND, learn and remember important knowledge.

Subject leaders should be suitably equipped to check the implementation of the curriculum. This will enable senior leaders to know how well pupils are learning and understand where further improvements are needed. ? Leaders have not put in place clear assessment systems for all subjects.

This hinders teachers from identifying what pupils know and remember from the curriculum and where pupils' gaps in learning or misconceptions may be. Leaders should ensure that assessment checks are clear and purposeful. Leaders should ensure that staff use assessment approaches consistently and establish what pupils know and remember from the curriculum.

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