Baring Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

This is a warm and welcoming school. Parents and carers typically describe it as 'part of the community' where staff carefully consider the needs of their children. Pupils feel safe and are kept safe.

If pupils have concerns, they know there is a trusted adult they can talk to who will listen and deal with any problems appropriately.

The school has high expectations for all pupils and has created an ambitious curriculum. Learning builds as pupils move through the school, and by the time they leave, most pupils achieve in line with national averages.

The school provides a huge range of experiences to enrich learning. This includes trips to museums, galleries, ...and London landmarks. There are a wide variety of visitors and projects such as working to compose music with the English National Opera and learning how to stay safe with representatives from the NSPCC and the emergency services.

Pupils are polite and courteous. They follow instructions, and there is little low-level disruption in lessons. In the playground, they play together in mixed-age groups happily and harmoniously.

Pupils in the early years share and take turns. Adults support their exploration and engage them in rich conversation.

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

The school has created a broad and balanced curriculum that builds from pupils' different starting points.

Leaders have a clear and accurate understanding of what is working well and where they would like to refine the curriculum. Typically, teachers successfully adapt their teaching where needed. However, in some subjects, teachers' activity choices and adaptations are not as well matched to what they want pupils to learn.

This can limit the development of pupils' knowledge and understanding.

Reading is a priority across the school. In Nursery, pupils enjoy rhymes, poems, and stories, and then, in Reception, they start the chosen phonics scheme.

Staff are well trained and present learning effectively. Pupils use their knowledge of sounds to read words. The books they read match the sounds they know.

If any pupils struggle, there is help available to ensure they catch up quickly.

The school ensures that pupils continue to increase their language skills and develop specialist vocabulary as they progress through the curriculum. For example, in early years, children are encouraged to talk about the colours they are mixing with paint.

By Year 5, pupils confidently discuss the techniques different artists use in their work.

Teachers typically recap on previous learning to make sure pupils remember the important knowledge they need. Most teachers use questions well to check pupils have understood what they are learning.

This helps them identify what pupils know and anything they still need to learn.

The school identifies any pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) as swiftly as possible. It works closely with a range of external agencies.

Staff ensure pupils with SEND receive the help and support they need. This means that most pupils with SEND access the curriculum successfully.

Pupils are kind to each other and to the adults in school.

They follow the three rules of 'be ready, be respectful and be safe.' The school helps pupils identify and manage their feelings. The school is doing all it can to improve attendance.

They are successfully improving levels of attendance year by year.

The school's work to promote pupils' personal development is a real strength of the school. The school provides pupils with a rich variety of opportunities to help them become responsible citizens.

Pupils are proud of their contributions to the school and local community. They raise money for charities, sing at a local care home or act as peer mediators in the playground. Pupils discuss fundamental British values and relate them to work completed by school councillors on the rights of the child.

They show maturity when talking about gender and race discrimination.

Staff are supported by leaders, including governors. They appreciate leaders' concern for their workload and well-being, such as marking being based on verbal rather than written feedback.

Governors are proud to work at the school and feel it is a truly nurturing place that is an asset to the local community. Governors offer appropriate support and challenge to the school so that the quality of education pupils receive continues to improve.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In some subjects, staff are not making the teaching choices needed to ensure that learning is embedded as intended and outlined in the school's curriculum. In these instances, pupils do not consistently develop the same depth of knowledge and understanding as they do in other subjects. The school should ensure staff consistently select appropriate activities and then adapt these as required so pupils consistently remember more in all subjects.