Butterknowle Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy attending this rural and very small community school. Staff have created a warm and safe learning environment for the pupils in their care. Bullying is rare.

Pupils behave well and attend regularly.

Governors' ambition for all pupils to achieve well is not realised fully. Pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), do not develop fluency in reading early enough.

This delays their progress across the curriculum in key stage 2.

The school is developing its curriculum planning from the early years to Year 6. Subject expertise is now drawn from all three primary schools in the federation.

This... work, although at a very early stage, is starting to make a positive difference for pupils. Pupils are beginning to recall and use knowledge learned in some subjects, such as geography, confidently in other curriculum areas.

Pupils' horizons are widened by the varied opportunities the school provides.

For example, they benefit hugely from the residential visits, including to coastal and city locations, that take place in Years 4, 5 and 6. Extra-curricular clubs, such as messy play club, are attended well.

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

Creating the federation of three schools has been governors' focus over recent years.

This, together with turbulence in staffing and COVID-related issues, has contributed to a decline in academic standards. Leaders, including governors, acknowledge that the school's curriculum has not supported pupils to achieve end-points that prepare them well for the next stage in their educational journey. They have begun to implement strategic improvement plans.

The school's evaluation of its own effectiveness is accurate.

Pupils, including pupils with SEND, do not learn to read early enough. Too many do not achieve the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check until the end of Year 2.

Staff do not deliver the school's phonics scheme consistently well. In phonics lessons, adults sometimes pronounce sounds incorrectly. Pupils' poor letter formation is not addressed as a matter of course.

This term, the books that early readers are given to read are at just the right level of difficulty.

Stay-and-play taster sessions for two-year-olds provide very effective transition. Children settle into school life quickly when they join the Nursery class.

Early years staff develop children's speech, language and communication needs consistently well. Other areas of learning in the early years are not addressed as well.

The curriculum for mathematics is established and delivered confidently.

Pupils enjoy mathematics. They do not have immediate recall of their multiplication tables. Other curriculum subjects, including foundation subjects such as design and technology, are at differing but much earlier stages of development.

For example, the curriculum in computing has only been in place since the beginning of the current term. The new curriculum planning for computing shows seamless progression in knowledge, skills and vocabulary, from the early years to Year 6. Staff need training to deliver this new curriculum confidently.

Staff training is required across all foundation subjects at Butterknowle.

The school is addressing teachers' workload well by distributing curriculum leadership throughout the federation's schools. Teachers appreciate having responsibility for one curriculum subject rather than the four or five they had previously.

The individual needs of pupils with SEND are identified quickly. The school's plans to meet these needs are reviewed and shared with parents and carers regularly. Despite these established practices, pupils with SEND are not making the academic progress of which they are capable.

Pupils are friendly, polite and welcoming. They have a deep understanding of right and wrong. Pupils treat their friends, teachers and visitors as they like to be treated themselves.

The school ensures that pupils know how to keep themselves safe when working and playing online and outside in the locality. For example, as the Gaunless river flows through the village, pupils learn about water safety in their swimming lessons and learn about the dangers of cold water shock from the fire and rescue service.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Pupils are not confident readers by the time they leave Years 1 and 2. Their lack of fluency impacts negatively on the progress they make in key stage 2. The school should make sure that all staff in the early years and key stage 1 access appropriate training and deliver phonics with expertise.

• The early years provision requires further development. Children do not make the progress of which they are capable. Leaders should ensure that children learn the knowledge and skills necessary to prepare them well for the rigours of the curriculum in key stage 1 and beyond.

• The curriculums for the foundation subjects are at an early stage of development. Pupils do not learn, remember and use sufficient knowledge and vocabulary across the whole curriculum. The school should make sure that carefully sequenced curriculums are implemented, and that staff's subject knowledge is developed, to ensure pupils know and remember more.