Burradon Community Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

Burradon Community Primary School has improved substantially since the previous inspection.

The determination and drive of senior leaders has been very successful in improving pupils' achievement across the school and in improving teaching and learning. From very low skills and knowledge on entry to the Nursery, pupils leave the school in Year 6 with above-average attainment in English and mathematics. They have made good and often better progress, especially higher-attaining pupils.

Particularly strong features of the school are pupils' outstanding behaviour and high attendance. Pupils enjoy coming to school, behave impeccably and have a heightened awareness of their own and others' safety. ...As a consequence, the school is a harmonious learning community where every child feels valued and respected and their learning flourishes.

The school is the 'hub' of the local community where pupils make good contributions and are very aware of their mining heritage. Pupils, however, are less knowledgeable about the wider world, different faiths and their place in a multicultural society. The focus to improve pupils' attainment across the school has been less successful in mathematics up to the end of Key Stage 1.

This is because pupils are not given enough opportunities to develop their quick recall of number facts and are sometimes over-supported in lessons, resulting in a lack of encouragement to develop mental strategies for calculations. Marking in pupils' books is focused and tells pupils what the next steps in their learning are but there are too few opportunities for pupils to respond to these good comments and carry out corrections. The school's outstanding procedures to ensure the safety of every child are instrumental in ensuring that no child gets left behind and there are no differences between the attainment and progress of different pupil groups.

Pupils say that bullying is not tolerated and during the inspection older pupils were seen to be taking extra responsibilities very seriously. They act as reading buddies and role models to Reception children and are helping them learn school routines and expectations very quickly. In the playground, younger and older pupils play and interact well together and the learning behaviours observed during the inspection in lessons were often exemplary.

The headteacher sets very clear expectations of her staff and has high expectations of what pupils can achieve. Together with her deputy she has ensured that teachers share her vision, are very keen to continually improve their practice, and are fully involved in driving improvement in their subject areas. Monitoring is a collective responsibility and teams work together very well.

However, senior leaders are not yet using their analysis of data to focus their monitoring on how different groups of pupils are performing in lessons. Senior leaders have an accurate view of their strengths and weaknesses through rigorous self-assessment procedures. The recent improvements to pupils' attainment and progress and teaching and learning, together with the school's continued promotion of pupils' outstanding personal development and well-being, show there is a good capacity to sustain these improvements.

Information about the school

This is a smaller than average primary school in an isolated location in North Tyneside. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals (FSM) is above the national average at 35%. The proportion of pupils who have a special educational need and/or disability is above the national average.

The vast majority of pupils come from a White British heritage. The school has a community wing and a play group on site which is not managed by the governing body and is inspected separately. Reports for the playgroup can be found on the Ofsted website.

Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms