Carville Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Staff care for pupils and want them to do well.

Despite this, the school is not currently providing pupils with an acceptable quality of education. Since the last inspection, the school has not taken sufficient action to address weaknesses in the curriculum. As a result, pupils are not well prepared for their next steps in education.

The school has introduced a behaviour system that is consistently followed by staff. School rules have been simplified and are displayed in school. Leaders want all pupils to abide by the 'Carville promise' of respecting each other.

In lessons, pupils generally respond to adults' requests. These changes have led to some improveme...nts in pupils' behaviour, although there remains more to do.

Leaders are committed to supporting children and the local community.

They provide a variety of support for parents and carers. This includes a 'Carville cooperative', an in-school food bank and preloved uniform shop. Leaders signpost parents and carers to appropriate agencies to help them to access further support.

Leaders seek to engage parents in their children's education. For example, parents are invited into school to find out about the teaching of phonics.

There are some strengths to the early years curriculum and the wider personal development offer.

However, further improvements are necessary to ensure that pupils consistently benefit from these important areas of school.

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

The school recognises that the quality of education needs to be improved. Leaders have begun to strengthen the curriculum for some subjects, such as history.

However, these changes are in the early stages of development and have not been fully implemented. In part, this is due to changes in staffing. The important knowledge that pupils should learn is not consistently identified in the current curriculum.

Pupils do not get regular opportunities to revisit important knowledge. In foundation subjects, staff do not check what pupils already know and so do not build on pupils' prior knowledge effectively.

Early reading is a priority of the school.

Pupils visit the library and choose books to read for pleasure every week. Pupils talk about the books that they have read or the books that teachers have read to them. A new phonics programme has been introduced which sets out the sounds that pupils should learn and when they should learn them.

However, leaders do not check effectively that the teaching of reading is having the impact it should.

The phonics programme is taught from Reception, when children first start school. There are weaknesses in the way that reading is taught.

For example, teachers do not provide pupils with enough opportunities to read the sounds that they are learning in words and sentences. This means that some pupils forget the sounds that they have been taught. Pupils do not learn to read as well as they should.

Pupils who need help to catch up in reading receive daily support. This support needs to be embedded to ensure that it has the impact leaders would like it to.

The school has revised the curriculum for mathematics.

Leaders do not sufficiently check to ensure that the curriculum is well taught. As a result, they have not identified some weaknesses in the implementation of the mathematics curriculum. In some lessons, teachers do not explain new concepts clearly or design activities that help pupils to build their knowledge.

Some teachers support pupils to rapidly recall mathematical facts with a quick revisit at the start of the lesson, which helps pupils. However, this practice is not consistently used across all year groups. This limits the opportunities that pupils have to revisit prior learning and develop mathematical fluency.

Pupils with special educational needs and or disabilities (SEND) are identified early in school. Leaders develop links with outside agencies to ensure that pupils' needs are correctly identified. However, teachers do not adapt the curriculum sufficiently well to help pupils with SEND to build their knowledge.

Some pupils do not receive the support required to help them.

Leaders have designed a personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) curriculum with inclusivity at the heart. The curriculum teaches pupils about relationships and celebrates differences.

However, pupils struggle to remember much of what they have been taught from this curriculum. They lack confidence when talking about their learning. Some routine extra-curricular activities are not currently taking place.

As a result, pupils have limited opportunities to develop and strengthen their talents and interests. Pupils say that they miss this after-school provision.

Children in the early years are safe and happy.

Leaders have thought about the knowledge that they want children to learn. They have made sure that indoor learning experiences fit into a sensible sequence and are progressive from nursery into reception. However, teachers do not ensure that the activities children undertake in the outdoor environment support them to build their knowledge.

Governors and representatives from the local authority recognise some of the weakness in the quality of education. They have accessed external support to help school leaders to improve the school. Staff say that leaders are considerate of their workload and supportive of their well-being.

Leaders provide the necessary support for teachers at the early stage of their career.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

There is an appropriate culture of safeguarding at Carville Primary School.

Staff receive regular training about safeguarding and feel this allows them to keep safeguarding at the forefront of their minds. Staff share concerns that they have about pupils' safety effectively. Leaders make referrals to external agencies in a timely manner.

Pupils learn how to keep safe online. Pupils know how to use the internet safely for undertaking research. Pupils are clear about the school's internet monitoring systems and how they help to keep them safe.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The school has not ensured that there is a clear curriculum in place for all subjects. As a result, pupils are not supported to learn and remember the knowledge that they need to be ready for the next stage of their education. The school should ensure that there is a suitable and well-implemented curriculum in place for all subjects, including in the early years.

• The systems and processes in place to quality assure the school do not give leaders a clear picture of what is happening in all areas of the school. As a result, progress in some school improvement matters, including implementing an effective curriculum and ensuring consistent support for pupils with SEND, has been slow. The school should ensure that quality assurance processes allow leaders to develop a clear understanding of the strengths and areas to improve in the school.

• In foundation subjects, assessment is not used effectively to tell teachers what pupils know and what gaps they have in learning. As a result, teachers do not build on pupils' prior knowledge or address any gaps that they have in their knowledge. Leaders should develop effective systems to check what pupils have learned and remembered.

• Pupils experience a limited range of activities that contribute to their broader understanding of the world and development of their character. As a result, they are not well prepared for life beyond school. The school should ensure that the personal development offer is carefully considered and offered to all pupils.

• While overall standards of behaviour are improving, these continue to require further improvement. The experiences of some pupils are impacted by the behaviour of others. Leaders should ensure that standards of behaviour throughout the school continue to improve.

• There is variation in the quality of the learning environment in the early years setting. In particular, the outdoor learning environment is not consistently well used to support children to develop their knowledge. Leaders should enact their plans to ensure that the outdoor area is well used to support the seven areas of learning within the early years curriculum.