Brampton Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are well cared for at Brampton Primary. They receive strong pastoral support. Relationships are positive.

Staff know pupils well and listen to what they have to say. Pupils show positive attitudes to learning. Although leaders have high ambitions for pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), inconsistencies in the quality of education means that pupils do not achieve as well as they should.

Typically, pupils behave well. They know that they are expected to be respectful, resilient and responsible. They do their best to live up to these high expectations.

Pupils support each other and celebrate the achievements o...f others. They are motivated by the rewards on offer including, earning points, gold awards, certificates and 'always' awards. However, the school does not review patterns of pupils' behaviour well enough.

This means that the school cannot be sure that behaviour is as positive as it could be.

Pupils make an important contribution to the school. They are proud to take on a wide range of responsibilities, including school councillors, librarians and working with younger pupils as 'mini readers' and 'mini mathematicians'.

The schools' 'SMILERS' team help everyone to know how to stay mentally healthy.

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

The new leadership team have made significant changes to the curriculum, arrangements for safeguarding and the quality of provision in the early years. However, they recognise that there is still much to do.

The quality of education is not yet good. Oversight of curriculum subjects is at an early stage. The school, supported by the governing body, has identified the right priorities to bring about further necessary improvements.

The school prioritises reading. The phonics programme is well organised. It is taught consistently.

Pupils who begin to fall behind are quickly identified and supported to keep up. Beyond phonics, the school has considered how reading is taught. However, what pupils learn at each stage of the reading curriculum has not been identified clearly.

Therefore, pupils do not build on their reading knowledge through school well enough.

In most subjects the new curriculum is well designed. Content is sequenced in a logical order.

It is clear what pupils are expected to learn and remember. However, the teaching of this curriculum is still at an early stage. In some lessons, the school does not ensure that pupils, including some pupils with SEND, complete tasks that are designed to help them think more deeply about what they have learned.

Pupils are not secure in their knowledge. They do not remember key content over time.

Pupils with SEND, including those who attend the enhanced resource provision, are well cared for.

The good level of pastoral support that they receive helps them to grow in confidence. However, for some, the school is not clear about the precise, small steps of improvement that these pupils are expected to make. As a result, the school cannot accurately check on how well these pupils are achieving.

Attendance is positive. The school provides the right balance of challenge and support when absence is too high. Pupils typically behave well.

Pupils who need help to live up to the schools' expectations get the support they need. The school's behaviour policy has been recently updated. The majority of pupils and staff feel it works well.

However, the school does not identify patterns of behaviour or bullying well enough to be able to make further improvements. The school's approach to anti-bullying is not consistently understood by staff and pupils. As a result, not all incidents of bullying are dealt with well.

Children get off to a strong start in the early years. The early years curriculum is meticulously organised. It is clear what children are expected to know and be able to do at each stage through Nursery and the Reception Year.

Learning is fun and engaging. Children receive well-tailored support to improve their communication and language skills and to develop independence.

Provision for pupils' personal development is a strength.

Underpinned by a robust programme for personal social and health education (PSHE), pupils learn to be respectful and considerate of others. They have an age appropriate understanding of fundamental British values and of the protected characteristics.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Some parts of the curriculum are at an early stage of implementation. They have not yet resulted in pupils knowing and remembering content over time. As a result, pupils recall of the curriculum is inconsistent.

The school should ensure that its' curriculum is embedded and consistently results in pupils remembering content over time. ? Strategies to support pupils with SEND are not consistent. The school is not clear about the precise, small steps of improvement that some pupils with SEND are expected to make.

This means that the school cannot accurately check if these pupils are achieving as well as they should. The school should ensure that there are consistent systems in place to ensure that it is clear what pupils with SEND should achieve. ? The school's reading curriculum is not fully sequenced.

This means that the school cannot be sure that content is being taught in the best or most logical order. The school should ensure that its reading curriculum is designed to clearly outline what pupils are expected to know and achieve at each stage, so that pupils can securely build upon their prior learning. ? In some lessons, pupils, including those with SEND, do not complete learning activities that allow them to apply what they have learned or secure a deeper understanding of the content studied.

Pupils who do not receive these opportunities do not learn and remember curriculum knowledge as well as their peers. The school should ensure that all pupils engage with learning activities that are designed to help them to apply what they have learned and to think more deeply about the content studied. ? The school does not review patterns of pupils' behaviour well enough.

This means that it does not know if any of the adaptations it has made are working or if further changes are required. The school should ensure that it uses the information it has gathered about incidents of pupils' behaviour, to check on the impact of the changes it has made and make further improvements where needed. ? The schools' anti-bullying policy is not implemented consistently well.

Staff do not have a consistent understanding of how cases of bullying should be managed. This means that some cases of bullying are not dealt with as thoroughly as they should be. The school should ensure that its policy for managing cases of bullying and/or alleged bullying is consistently understood and applied by all staff.