Bentley Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Bentley Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy school. The warm nurturing environment means they are safe and ready to learn.

Pupils know staff are always available to help them. The nurture club offers a safe haven if pupils have a worry. They learn strategies to cope with life's challenges, make friends and develop confidence.

Older pupils are proud to become trained 'mentors' who help their peers in times of need. Pupils understand what bullying is and know if this happens, it is dealt with quickly.

Pupils respond well to the high expectations the school has of the...m and most achieve well in mathematics and reading.

Learning is not disrupted because pupils are calm and settled in lessons. Pupils build resilience to setbacks and understand they can learn from their mistakes. Pupils are highly motivated learners.

Pupils love to receive 'brain stickers' for their achievements. They relish the challenge to read five times a week. This helps pupils become self-disciplined in their work.

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are very well supported. They participate fully in the life of the school.

Pupils enjoy well-planned educational visits and trips such as meeting a local engineer and going sailing.

These enrich pupils' learning and broaden their horizons.

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

The school has an ambitious curriculum that sets out the key knowledge pupils will learn and by when. This is designed to help pupils make connections in learning as topics are woven across subjects.

Pupils have time to integrate new knowledge and revisit key information.

Leaders have set out how they want the curriculum to be delivered. Pupils like the quizzes that help them remember what they learned recently.

During lessons, teachers check individual pupil's learning. They give pupils 'thinking time' so they can consider their answers. Paired work helps pupils reflect on their learning so they can decide how to apply new knowledge.

These strategies are not always consistently used across the school. As a result, some pupils find the work either too easy or too hard. In some instances, this means pupils do not remember key information and this impacts the quality of their work.

In reading and mathematics, pupils achieve in line with others nationally. This is because early reading is prioritised, and there is important emphasis put on pupils applying their mathematical learning in meaningful problem-solving tasks. Well-trained staff lead daily phonics sessions and hear pupils read.

Books match the sounds pupils already know. This helps them become fluent readers quickly. Frequent checks identify pupils at risk of falling behind early on.

Extra help ensures they catch up quickly and achieve well. Books are carefully chosen to interest children and complement learning. Pupils like the challenge of more tricky texts, such as 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' by William Shakespeare.

They remember the plot and characters with amusement.

Pupils with SEND are fully included in all aspects of school life. Plans identify precise targets for them.

Staff use these well to adapt work so that pupils with SEND succeed in meeting their targets. Parents are highly positive about the work the school does to identify their children's needs and involve them in the life of the school.

Children in the early years are enthusiastic and curious learners.

High importance is placed on developing their communication and language skills. This means children become confident to talk to each other, play cooperatively and help each other with tasks such as washing up the painting equipment. Children develop their artistic skills.

For example, they persevere to create intricate drawings of African baskets. They strengthen their hand muscles and manipulate clay to make 'golden' pots. This helped children connect learning to the story they are reading, set in Africa.

The school sets high expectations for pupils' attendance. Pupils with persistent absence receive help to improve their attendance. Relationships among pupils and staff are highly respectful.

Pupils support each other's well-being. They are consistently calm and polite around the school.

The school promotes pupils' personal development extremely well.

Pupils take part in a range of trips to places such as the seaside, a farm and a museum. This widens their horizons and generates new interests. Carefully chosen books evoke pupils' discussion about social and moral dilemmas.

Visits to different places of worship help pupils learn about other beliefs and cultures. The newly introduced 'metacognition' approach helps develop positive character traits. Through it, pupils are learning to be self-evaluative, independent and resilient.

The school has a highly reflective leadership team. Leaders make well-considered strategic decisions that benefit pupils. There is a positive culture of professional development.

All staff feel supported and are proud to work at the school.

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 approaches the school has introduced to support curriculum improvements are not consistently executed as leaders intend.

This means that there are instances when pupils' knowledge is not as secure as it could be, and this impacts the quality of their work. The school should ensure that teachers are supported to implement the agreed teaching approaches consistently across the school so that all pupils learn as well as they can.

Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good.

This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

This is the second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in November 2018.