Boxgrove Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Boxgrove Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are polite and welcoming. Older pupils communicate eloquently and with maturity.

Behaviour in lessons is good and low-level disruption is rare. Pupils move around the school calmly. They interact with each other positively at playtimes.

All enjoy the activities on offer. Bullying happens rarely, and staff deal with it seriously when it happens.

Teachers confidently teach a broad and ambitious curriculum to all pupils, including those in the specially resourced provision for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (specially resourced provision)....r/>
Pupils are encouraged to learn from their mistakes and, as a result, they have become resilient learners. They routinely revisit their past learning and build on it.

Pupils are proud of their school vegetable garden.

They are keen to show off their homegrown produce of carrots and apples. Many enjoy their extra responsibilities such as 'playground prefects' and 'school councillors'. Relationships are built on mutual respect.

Pupils feel safe at school and know how to keep safe online. They proudly promote tolerance and celebrate each other's differences.

Staff take advantage of the wealth of local places of interest.

Pupils enjoy their visits to the Royal Observatory and the O2 arena. They also look forward to residential trips, such as the Year 2 overnight visit to a farm in Sussex.

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

Leaders have made sure the curriculum is broad and ambitious for all pupils.

This includes pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) in the mainstream classes and those in the specially resourced provision. In key stages 1 and 2, leaders have identified the key knowledge and skills to be covered in all subjects across the school. Currently, key stage 1 and 2 subject leaders in English and mathematics include learning in the early years when planning their curriculum programmes.

For other subjects, work in the early years is considered separately from the rest of the school. This means that children are not always as well prepared for Year 1 as they might be.

Staff receive regular, subject-specific training.

This enables them to teach with confidence. Leaders have purchased carefully chosen schemes and resources for some subjects. This has further supported teachers with any gaps in their subject knowledge and has reduced their workload.

In physical education, teachers deliver appropriately pitched lessons for their pupils. In gymnastics and dance, skills are broken down, practised and developed. Pupils make noticeable progress year on year.

Teachers break down the learning into achievable steps. They give pupils purposeful feedback, so they know exactly what they need to do to improve. Pupils are simultaneously taught about the health benefits of exercise on the human body.

In mathematics, pupils demonstrate fluency and reasoning. In the early years, children are taught the same language, images and resources as the rest of the school. They practise their counting and begin to use simple addition methods.

Staff model the same methods in the specially resourced provision. Here, mathematics lessons are tailored to meet the needs of individual pupils. Pupils progress at their own pace.

They work on appropriate year group content so that they are prepared for when they reintegrate with their mainstream classes. In the mainstream classes, pupils demonstrate secure mathematical knowledge. They can make useful connections between fractions, percentages and decimals.

Through regular assessments in all subjects, teachers identify gaps in knowledge and misconceptions. They address these in their lessons. More formal assessments are done three times a year.

Teachers use these to track pupils' progress.

Leaders have made sure that reading is a priority. Although they have only recently changed the phonics programme, it is already embedded well across the school.

Pupils who fell behind due to the COVID-19 restrictions are already making rapid progress. All staff have received training to deliver the new programme. Pupils who have fallen behind are quickly identified.

Through tailored support, they soon catch up with their peers. Books match pupils' phonics knowledge. All staff promote the love of reading.

Teachers read quality, carefully chosen texts out loud to their class. Pupils become animated when talking about their favourite books and authors.

Despite the complex needs of many pupils, disruption to lessons is rare.

Staff manage pupils' behaviour with expertise. Leaders engage with professionals to ensure that all pupils with SEND receive any extra support they need.

Pupils are taught about life in modern Britain through their personal, social and health education curriculum.

They learn about different faiths and celebrate each other's differences. They give examples of when teachers have addressed racism and sexism through their lessons and the positive impact this has had.

Staff enjoy working at the school.

They feel supported by senior leaders and are grateful for the adjustments that have been made to reduce their workload.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

There is a strong culture of safeguarding across the school.

Rigorous processes are in place to identify concerns. Staff are quick to raise their concerns through the school's systems and make sure they follow their concerns up. Leaders make appropriate and timely referrals when necessary.

They support families through their own in-house early help systems and engage well with agencies.

Staff and governors receive regular training. They are kept up to date with national and local challenges.

Pupils feel safe at the school and have at least one adult they can talk to. They know how to keep safe online.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The reading and mathematics curriculum in the early years prepares children well for what they will learn from Year 1 onwards.

However, this is not the case in some other subjects. Leaders of all subjects should strengthen connections between the early years and key stage 1 curriculum programmes so that children are better prepared for what they will learn in Year 1.

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

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the section 8 inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the section 8 inspection as a section 5 inspection immediately.

This is the second section 8 inspection since we judged the school to be good in May 2015.

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