Adlington Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

Adlington Primary is an outstanding school.

It offers a high standard of care alongside excellence in learning. Under the energetic and visionary leadership of the headteacher this school has gone from strength to strength. Progress in Key Stage 2 is significantly and consistently better than the national average and many improvements have been made to younger pupils' learning.

Children make good progress in the Early Years Foundation Stage, attainment is above average by Year 2 and it is high by Year 6. Managers and governors have rigorous processes for monitoring performance and use the information wisely to plan developments. This is a successful strategy that, for example, has recently le...d to improvements in learning for the more-able.

Self-evaluation is excellent. The capacity for sustained improvement is outstanding. Teaching is outstanding and lessons are challenging.

Teachers know their pupils very well and relationships are excellent. Progress is tracked closely. Personalised programmes of work and very effective intervention ensure that individual needs are met and pupils reach their challenging targets.

Those who are more-able rise to their teachers' high expectations and relish the challenges presented to them. The curriculum is outstanding and includes a rich emphasis on the arts and sport. Pupils' interests are fired by stimulating topic work that links subjects together in an imaginative way and includes a rich variety of visits and extra-curricular clubs.

Consequently, pupils have excellent opportunities to practise their basic skills, research, investigate and learn independently. Behaviour is excellent; harmonious relationships exist between pupils of different ages and backgrounds and attendance is high. However, pupils' understanding of different cultures and world faiths is not as strong as it could be.

Pupils relish the opportunities provided for them to experience responsibility. For example, the school council plays a significant role in decision making. The pupils' welfare is at the heart of the school's work.

Exhaustive measures are taken to provide help or resources to meet pupils' needs, including extensive links with outside services. Pupils are very confident that school is a safe place. There is a continuous cycle of improvement at the school with a current focus on the Early Years Foundation Stage.

However, because the provision and resources are not always organised to best effect, children do not have full access to all their activities throughout the day; some learning opportunities in the outdoor classroom are lost and there are a few times when learning is slower because children are taught as a whole class group.

Information about the school

This school is smaller than most primary schools and pupils are taught in mixed-age classes except for the Reception children. It is situated in a rural area and some pupils attend from outside the immediate locality.

Most pupils are of White British heritage and a few pupils have other backgrounds. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is below average and a below-average proportion of pupils have special educational needs and/or disabilities. The school has Healthy Schools status and holds the Activemark and Inclusion Quality Mark awards.

Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms