Bacon Garth Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders have established a curriculum that has increasing ambition for pupils. In subjects such as history, pupils learn well and produce work of good quality.

They remember the most important knowledge that they need. This supports pupils well with their future study.

Adults help pupils to manage their own feelings and behaviour well.

Pupils understand what adults expect of their behaviour and rise to these expectations. Pupils behave well and have highly positive attitudes to their learning. Adults teach pupils how to treat everyone with respect.

Pupils live this out in their relationships with each other. Pupils' attendance is very high. They enjo...y school and want to attend every day.

There is a real sense of community at Bacon Garth Primary School. Some pupils contribute to school life by running the healthy tuck shop. Others contribute as school councillors.

These opportunities help pupils to contribute to their community and prepare for their future lives. The school has created an inclusive culture that helps pupils to feel happy and safe.

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

Children in early years get off to a rapid start with phonics and reading.

Adults encourage children to use new vocabulary. This helps children to extend their talk and explain their thinking. However, the curriculum for reading does not provide some older pupils with the tuition that they need to practise the most important knowledge and skills.

This means that some older pupils have gaps in their understanding. This hampers their ability to analyse and answer questions about the texts that they read.

In mathematics, children in early years secure their understanding of number and repeating patterns.

This continues as pupils move through the school. They use and apply their prior learning in their mathematics lessons. Despite low outcomes in 2023, pupils access an appropriate curriculum and achieve well in mathematics.

In many subjects, the knowledge and skills that pupils should learn are securely built upon. For example, leaders have made the development of history and design and technology priorities. In early years, children develop their understanding of the past by learning about their local area.

This helps pupils to secure their understanding of chronology before studying important concepts, such as empire and invasion. In design and technology, children in early years practise different ways to fold and join materials. Older pupils practise more complex skills, such as stitching.

Pupils explain the different stitches and how they can be used in different contexts. Pupils achieve well in these subjects.

In early years, staff help children to cooperate well and build positive relationships with each other.

Children become independent quickly and show resilience when trying new things. The curriculum provides children with the important foundational knowledge that they need. Children are enthralled by the interesting activities that they are given to do.

For example, children showed impressive concentration when experimenting with the different ways that water flows when the gradient changes. Children find this learning highly engaging.

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities receive the support that they need.

The school adapts learning for these pupils. This helps to remove the barriers that pupils might face to their learning.

Leaders' work to promote pupils' personal development is very well developed.

Pupils talk with maturity about issues such as healthy relationships and staying safe online. Pupils understand that they live in a diverse world. They treat those around them with kindness and respect.

Leaders provide pupils with lots of opportunities to contribute meaningfully to their school. Many pupils take on leadership roles. They take their status as role models very seriously.

Some pupils contribute as librarians while others work as first aiders. Pupil leadership is a golden thread that is helping pupils to be active citizens, supporting their school community.

Those responsible for governance are knowledgeable about some aspects of the school.

However, they do not have an accurate view of the quality of education that the school provides. This makes it more difficult to check that leaders are focused on the right things to improve the quality of education for pupils. The workload and well-being of all staff are priorities for governors and leaders.

Staff are proud to work at this school. They are committed to the community that they serve.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The teaching of reading is not always as effective as it should be for some older pupils. This means that these pupils do not have enough opportunities to develop their reading comprehension skills. The school should improve the teaching of reading so that all pupils make the progress that they need to be ready for the next stage of their education.