Blackshaw Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are proud and happy to be part of the welcoming community at this warm and friendly school.

They told inspectors that they support everyone in their school. Pupils have mature attitudes towards differences between themselves and others. For example, they explained that 'everyone is different in their own way, which makes them special.'



The school has high expectations for pupils' achievement, including for those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils share in these expectations, for themselves and for their classmates. Most achieve well.

Pupils value acknowledgement for their efforts, including through certificates... and recognition during celebration assemblies.

Pupils have positive attitudes towards their learning. They know that demonstrating the school's many values helps them to learn well.

For example, pupils explained why it is important to persevere during lessons and how being curious helps them to develop their intellect. In following these shared characteristics, pupils behave well across the school.

The school provides pupils with a variety of rich experiences.

For instance, pupils attend clubs in sports, science and gardening. They can also join the choir. Pupils' learning is enriched through trips, including residentials and visits to museums and zoos.

Pupils spoke fondly of opportunities to spend time caring for the school's resident therapy dog.

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

The school has adopted a broad and balanced curriculum, which is commensurate with the national curriculum. In most subjects, it has identified the important knowledge that pupils should learn and when this should happen.

This helps pupils to build their knowledge well across a range of subjects. In some subjects, including some areas of learning in the early years, the school is still refining curriculum content and the order that teachers should introduce it. As a result, teachers do not consistently build new learning sufficiently well on what pupils should already know.

This means that some pupils do not have a secure understanding in these subjects.

The school has provided staff with a range of training that helps them to develop their subject knowledge and their understanding of how to deliver the curriculum. However, there remains some variability in how effectively staff implement subject curriculums.

For example, some staff do not check routinely enough how well pupils are learning. From time to time, this limits some pupils in learning as well as they could.

The school identifies pupils with SEND as quickly as possible.

Staff work well with external professionals, and with parents and carers, to support these pupils in learning alongside their peers. Pupils with SEND are fully included in school life.

Reading is a priority across the school.

Staff foster pupils' love of reading well. For example, the curriculum is centred on carefully chosen texts. Pupils visit the school's well-stocked library areas regularly, where they enjoy listening to stories.

They learn to recite poetry during dedicated poetry assemblies. Pupils spoke of books and authors that they enjoy. They request new books of their choice by using a 'reading wishing well'.

In the early years, staff immerse children in a multitude of stories, rhymes and songs. Children in the Nursery Year relished enacting their current book with staff. Well-trained staff deliver the phonics programme well, from the beginning of the Reception Year.

They provide pupils with books that contain the sounds that pupils already know. Staff provide effective support for pupils who find reading difficult.

Classrooms are calm and purposeful, which helps pupils to focus on their learning.

Pupils are respectful and well mannered, particularly during group discussions. They understand why it is important to attend school. Pupils told inspectors that it will help them to fulfil their future aspirations, including becoming a Paralympian and travelling to new places.

The school works closely with families to support pupils in attending school regularly.

The school provides well for pupils' personal development. Pupils take on leadership roles as library monitors, playtime leaders, prefects and well-being champions.

Older pupils develop their enterprise skills, for example, by organising and budgeting for a Halloween disco. They raise money for charities and grow food for those who are less fortunate. The school encourages pupils to give back to the local community.

It rewards these endeavours in its prestigious 'unsung hero' awards each year.

The governing body provides the school with effective challenge and support, with a continued focus on the school's quality of education. Staff are positive about working at the school.

They told inspectors that they appreciate the school's consideration for their workload and well-being. For instance, the school provides a range of support, training and additional time to enable staff to fulfil their roles well.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In a small number of subjects, the school has not determined precisely enough the knowledge that pupils should learn and the order in which teachers should introduce it. This limits some pupils in developing a secure understanding in these subjects, as teachers do not consistently build on pupils' prior learning. The school should ensure that teachers are clear about the information that pupils should learn, to help them to build a deep and rich body of subject knowledge.

• At times, there is some variability in how well some staff deliver the curriculum, including how persistent they are in checking pupils' understanding of new concepts and ideas. This hinders some pupils in learning as well as they could. The school should support staff in implementing the curriculum as intended and checking that pupils know and remember more of the curriculum.

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