Braithwaite CofE Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are proud of their small, friendly school. They feel safe, secure and happy here.

Many pupils join the school part way through the academic year, for example, when they are new to the area. These pupils receive a warm welcome. This helps them to settle in quickly and to make new friends.

The school has high expectations of what pupils can achieve, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils work hard. They learn to apply their knowledge in a range of contexts.

Pupils know that staff will help them if they do not understand something. Typically, pupils achieve well in the subjects that they learn.

Pupils b...ehave well.

For example, children in the Nursery Year quickly learn the school's rules and routines alongside their more experienced Reception classmates. Older pupils help their younger peers to use tools and resources carefully, for instance during their weekly woodland activities. This sensible behaviour helps to make the school a calm and orderly place.

The school's provision for pupils' wider spiritual, moral and cultural development is exceptionally strong. Pupils benefit from an impressive array of experiences beyond the academic, including cookery, business enterprise and canoeing. The school takes care to ensure that all pupils access these opportunities, including those with SEND.

Pupils are extremely well prepared for secondary school when the time comes.

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

The school has created an exciting and ambitious curriculum which spans a broad range of subjects. All pupils benefit from this curriculum, including those children in the early years and those with SEND.

The curriculum is well organised. Careful consideration has been given to the most important knowledge that the school wants pupils to learn. This key knowledge has been broken down further into smaller, well-ordered steps from the early years to Year 6.

This helps to ensure that pupils develop and deepen their knowledge appropriately, including where they learn in mixed-age classes.

In most subjects, the curriculum contains guidance for staff about how learning should be delivered. Staff make effective use of this guidance to design activities for pupils that are enjoyable and that help pupils to remember learning over time.

In a very small number of subjects, this guidance for staff is less well developed. This hinders staff's ability to provide consistently memorable learning for pupils. In these subjects, from time to time, some pupils struggle to recall what they have learned previously.

Staff check regularly to ensure that pupils understand new knowledge before introducing new concepts. This helps to ensure that pupils' misconceptions can be identified and addressed successfully. The school is adept at using information from assessments to make any adjustments to teaching that might be necessary to help pupils learn well.

The school has ensured that reading is prioritised in the curriculum. The phonics programme begins at the start of the Reception Year. With the help of the trust, the school has trained staff to deliver the phonics programme expertly.

Children quickly build up their knowledge of letters and sounds. This continues in Year 1. Older pupils at the early stage of reading receive effective support to catch up quickly.

Pupils of all ages develop a real love of reading. They enjoy striving for the awards that they receive when they read a diverse range of texts. Pupils generally achieve well in reading from their widely varying starting points, including those pupils with SEND.

The additional needs of pupils with SEND are quickly identified by skilled staff. When necessary, these pupils benefit from well-targeted adaptations to the delivery of the curriculum. This enables pupils with SEND to fully access the school's ambitious curriculum.

The school communicates regularly and effectively with parents and carers, and with a range of professionals to secure extra support for pupils if it is needed. Pupils with SEND are fully included in all aspects of school life. They achieve well over time from their individual starting points.

Most pupils attend school regularly and punctually. Relationships between adults and pupils are warm and respectful. Pupils work conscientiously and they rarely need to be reminded how to behave.

This helps everyone to get on with their learning.

The school, although small, provides pupils with an amazing range of experiences for their personal development. Every possible care has been taken to design an extensive programme of activities intended to prepare pupils for future life.

Pupils are supported to understand the unique character of their own location. For example, pupils from an early age learn to walk safely on the fells through their regular work with the mountain rescue services. Equally, pupils learn to plan journeys on public transport in large cities.

Pupils broaden their cultural knowledge through visits to galleries, theatres and museums. Pupils are provided with opportunities to develop interests and talents that they can continue beyond school, such as sports and sailing. By the time that they leave Year 6, pupils are more than ready to embrace the next stage in their education.

The trust and the local governing body work closely with leaders to ensure that the school provides pupils with a high-quality education. There is due regard for any impact on staff's workload and well-being in the decisions that leaders make about 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)

• In a very small number of subjects, the curriculum does not contain enough information for staff about how to make key knowledge memorable for pupils. This means that on occasions, some pupils find it difficult to recall some of their learning in these subjects. The school should ensure that the curriculum provides sufficient guidance for staff so that the learning they provide helps pupils to remember knowledge over time.