Brettenham Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils and staff work hard to reflect the school's values of honesty, awareness and responsibility in all aspects of school life.

Pupils enjoy coming to school. Staff greet pupils warmly as they enter the school gates, ensuring a purposeful start to the day ahead.

Pupils are polite and respectful towards each other.

They behave well in lessons and when moving around the school. Pupils concentrate during learning time and are motivated to achieve well. This is because staff have high expectations of them.

Pupils feel happy and safe because they know staff will listen to them if they have a concern.

Pupils take on positions of responsibility. ...This includes acting as lunchtime monitors, mental health ambassadors and librarians.

Pupil librarians take pride in their role. They support younger pupils to choose books and to follow the library rules.

Pupils are taught about different faiths and cultures.

Visiting speakers from a range of faiths explain their beliefs to pupils. Pupils are encouraged to understand and respect different beliefs and customs.

Overall, pupils achieve well.

Even though some pupils may arrive at different times during the school year, staff do all they can to ensure they settle in quickly and achieve well.

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

Reading is given priority here. Pupils are given opportunities to visit the school library regularly and staff read to pupils daily.

Children in the early years learn songs and rhymes which they perform with delight. These experiences develop pupils' love for reading.

Staff teach children to read as soon as they join Reception.

This is because leaders want every pupil to learn to read fluently and without delay. Pupils are given books to practise reading that are matched to the sounds that they know. Therefore, they read with increasing confidence and fluency.

Staff are well trained in the teaching of phonics. They check the sounds that pupils know regularly and systematically. Pupils who find reading difficult are given the help they need to catch up.

The school is ambitious for all pupils to achieve well. The curriculum is well structured. Leaders breakdown key learning that pupils need to secure into logical steps starting from the early years.

For example, pupils in Year 4 are able to send and receive a ball accurately because they have previously been taught the correct technique for each pass. In the early years, staff help children to remember important vocabulary very well across all areas of learning. For example, adults in the Nursery reinforce language such as 'build', 'taller', 'higher' and 'tower' when helping children to use building blocks.

However, in a few subjects the curriculum is not being delivered as the school intends and this means pupils have gaps in their knowledge, vocabulary and understanding.

In the majority of subjects, teachers have the subject knowledge they need to deliver the curriculum effectively. Misconceptions are corrected within lessons and teachers explain new content clearly.

Pupils typically remember important vocabulary, skills and concepts over time. For example, pupils in Year 1 recall number bonds to 10 quickly. They can say one more and one less than a given number and use mathematical vocabulary with understanding.

This is because they have been taught basic mathematical knowledge extremely well in Reception.

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are accurately and effectively identified. However, on a few occasions pupils with SEND do not receive support that is precise enough to meet their needs.

As a result, some pupils do not achieve as well as they could.

Pupils are engaged and show positive attitudes towards their learning. This means that the curriculum is taught without any interruption.

Routines and expectations are firmly established. The school provides opportunities for pupils to understand and regulate their feelings. Pupils manage their emotions well.

This includes children in the early years.

Personal, social, health and economic education is well structured. Pupils are taught how to identify risks both within and beyond the school.

Pupils are taught about consent in an age-appropriate way. They collaborate well and are taught to share their opinions. For example, some pupils thought that all pupils should be given fruit daily.

They spoke to leaders and wrote to local businesses and now pupils in Years 3 to 6 receive a piece of fruit every day.

Trustees are ambitious for all pupils. They have processes in place to check how well the school is doing and to hold school leaders to account.

Staff are proud to work at Brettenham. They value the assistance they get from the school to support their well-being and workload.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• On a few occasions, pupils with SEND do not receive effective support. This means that some pupils do not achieve as well as they could. The school needs to ensure that pupils with SEND consistently receive support that is precisely tailored to their needs so that they achieve well in all subjects.

In a few subjects at the earlier stages of development, the curriculum is not delivered as intended. This means that some pupils have gaps in their learning. The school needs to ensure that the curriculum is consistently delivered as intended and that processes are in place to check pupils are retaining key skills, knowledge and vocabulary.

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