Brightwalton C.E. Aided Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Children are happy and confident at Brightwalton. They love to learn.

Leaders and staff are building pupils' resilience and confidence successfully. Pupils feel well cared for. As one child said, 'There's always a happy spirit going around.'



Leaders are ambitious that pupils achieve their very best. They have made some important improvements to the curriculum over the last year. Pupils are enthusiastic learners and confident communicators.

They were eager to discuss their learning with inspectors throughout the inspection. Pupils enjoy reading and talk confidently about books. They love stories and are clearly engrossed when teachers read to them.<...br/>
Pupils are respectful and polite. Behaviour around the school and in lessons is good. Relationships between pupils and staff are positive.

Pupils said that they feel safe at school. On the rare occasions that bullying happens, this is addressed promptly by staff. Pupils have a clear understanding of how to get help if they are worried about something.

Leaders provide many opportunities to promote pupils' personal development. These include a varied range of clubs at lunchtime and after school. These clubs are complemented by a strong curriculum that enables pupils to develop as well-rounded youngsters who contribute to school life.

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

Pupils achieve well in subjects across the whole curriculum. Leaders have made sure that the curriculum places a strong emphasis on developing pupils' vocabulary and reading knowledge. This means that they can easily access learning in other subjects.

The curriculum is well ordered. It allows pupils to build on what they already know. Leaders have defined the key knowledge that they want pupils to learn.

This means that pupils, including children in the early years, achieve well.

In some subjects, such as history and geography, leaders are not clear enough about the most essential knowledge that they want pupils to remember for their future learning. As a result, teachers do not know which subject content should be emphasised as the most important.

This means that pupils sometimes struggle to link the knowledge that they already know to more complex ideas.

Leaders ensure that reading has a high priority. From the time that children start in Reception, they follow a carefully thought-through early reading programme.

Teachers are experts in helping pupils to read. The books that pupils read are well matched to the sounds that they know. This helps them to become confident and fluent readers.

Pupils who are at risk of falling behind benefit from appropriate support. They quickly become fluent readers. Leaders foster pupils' love of learning through whole-school reading challenges, in-depth studies of books, reading workshops and daily story times.

Teachers are continually checking on what pupils know and can do. They use this information well to inform the next steps in the sequence of learning. Leaders and staff have adapted most of the curriculum effectively to help pupils to learn the essential knowledge that they may have missed during the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

Leaders make sure that everyone is included in all aspects of school life. Teachers are accomplished at identifying pupils who need extra support. They quickly identify pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

This means that pupils with SEND get the support that they need to succeed in their learning and wider development.

Pupils' social, moral, spiritual and cultural development is promoted across the curriculum. The school's values are central to guiding pupils to make wise choices and get on well together.

Activities such as the annual residential trip for Year 6 and the visit to a Hindu temple are being reinstated after the pandemic. Pupils from all year groups contribute to the school council discussions.

Governors know the school well.

They use their experience, skills and expertise to fulfil their statutory duties and ensure that leaders are held to account for the quality of education the school provides. Leaders, including governors, have benefited from a range of support from the local authority. Governors have all completed safeguarding training.

They have also accessed training in monitoring the curriculum and in holding school leaders to account.

Staff are proud to work at the school. They are committed to providing only the best education for its pupils.

The headteacher is mindful of the potential for overload when there are only so many ways of sharing out responsibilities in a small school. The headteacher does her best to protect staff from additional pressure, and staff appreciate how leaders consider workload carefully when planning to improve the school.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders create a caring atmosphere for pupils. Staff are alert to signs when all may not be well. Their training is up to date and current.

Staff know how to report concerns. They use an effective online reporting system. Leaders follow up on reported incidents with rigour.

Record-keeping is thorough. Leaders work effectively with other agencies to help protect pupils.

The personal, social and health education curriculum is at the heart of the school's curriculum.

Through it, pupils learn how to keep themselves safe and how to look after their physical and mental health.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In a small number of subjects, the order in which some key knowledge should be taught is unclear. This means that pupils are not able to build well enough on what they know.

They struggle to link their previous learning to more complex concepts. Leaders should ensure that all subject curriculums clearly show what should be taught and when this should happen. For this reason, the transition arrangements have been applied.

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