Chapelfield Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils know the school rules and follow them well. They strive to live out the school's values.

Pupils respect each other and adults. They care about others. Older pupils welcome their roles of responsibility.

For example, pupils who are reading buddies enjoy helping younger pupils to practise and improve their reading.

Pupils are attentive in lessons. They enjoy active playtimes.

Children in early years play together sociably. Older pupils enjoy team games. They cooperate well together in their play.

Leaders and staff take effective care of pupils. This helps pupils to feel happy and safe in school. Pupils are confident in using the systems... in place to tell adults if they have any concerns or worries.

Leaders deal with any rare incidents of bullying effectively. This means that these are not repeated.

Pupils are considerate of others.

They take an active part in charitable work. This includes raising funds for a local animal welfare centre. In this way, pupils learn how to be active citizens.

Leaders have high expectations for all pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Leaders have improved the curriculum to help pupils to know and remember more over time. Pupils achieve well across a range of subjects as a result.

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

Leaders have a strong ambition to develop a love of reading in all pupils and to expand their vocabulary. This underpins leaders' curriculum thinking effectively. Leaders have ensured that subject curriculums are enriched by a range of high-quality texts.

Leaders carefully consider how to build pupils' knowledge in and across the mixed-aged classes. Their well-designed curriculum starts in early years. Leaders prioritise the most important knowledge that children should learn.

This includes a sharp focus on developing children's ability to communicate well.

Curriculums in many subjects are well established. Leaders are clear about the key knowledge that they want pupils to know and remember in these subjects.

They provide teachers with appropriate support to deliver these curriculums well, including in early years. Teachers use their strong subject knowledge to order curriculum content carefully. They check that pupils remember essential knowledge before introducing new learning.

Pupils learn well in these subjects.

In a small number of foundation subjects, leaders' curriculum improvements are more recent. Some leaders are relatively new to their leadership roles.

They have had insufficient opportunity to develop teachers' subject knowledge or to check how well their curriculums are being delivered. Some teachers lack clarity about what should be taught and when. This hinders how well they use assessment strategies to identify and build on what pupils know already.

Some pupils' knowledge is uneven in these subjects as a result.

Leaders make teaching pupils to read a high priority. Staff in Nursery introduce children to lots of new words through stories and play.

Children build on this knowledge as they begin to learn to read in Reception Year. Here, well-trained staff deliver the phonics programme to a high standard. Children quickly gain the knowledge that they need to read words and simple sentences.

Pupils in key stage 1 build on this positive start. They develop secure reading knowledge and apply this well to their writing.

Pupils practise reading, using books that closely match the sounds that they know.

Pupils who need extra support have regular opportunities to read to adults. This helps to develop their fluency and accuracy. Older pupils are inspired to read a broad range of books independently.

They develop secure reading knowledge as they move through the school. Pupils apply this well to learn new concepts in other subjects. Older pupils are well equipped for the reading challenges of the key stage 3 curriculum.

Leaders identify the additional needs of pupils with SEND effectively, including for children in early years. Leaders and staff put effective support in place for these pupils. This helps pupils with SEND to access the same ambitious curriculum as their peers.

Pupils demonstrate mature attitudes towards each other. They are sensitive to the different needs of others. This supports pupils to behave well and to focus on their learning in lessons without interruption.

Leaders think carefully about pupils' wider development. They broaden pupils' experiences through visits to events such as art exhibitions. Pupils enjoy attending the range of after-school clubs on offer.

They learn about the importance of eating healthily and looking after their emotional well-being. However, leaders provide pupils with fewer opportunities to learn about the rich diversity of the world and important values such as democracy. This means that pupils are not as well prepared for growing up in modern Britain as they should be.

Governors have improved their understanding of the school's strengths and ongoing improvement priorities. This helps them to offer leaders better informed support and challenge. Staff morale is high.

Staff appreciate that leaders are considerate of their workload and well-being.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders train staff well.

They make sure that staff know how to keep pupils safe. Staff are vigilant and take appropriate actions to protect pupils from potential harm.

Leaders make sure that pupils benefit from effective pastoral support.

Staff know how to identify pupils who may need help with their mental or emotional well-being. Leaders put this support in place quickly.

Staff teach pupils how to stay safe and behave responsibly in different situations.

Pupils develop a secure understanding of what is right and wrong. This includes when thinking about issues such as appropriate online behaviour.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Leaders' curriculum is at an earlier stage of development in some foundation subjects than in others.

This means that some teachers are not clear about the important subject knowledge that pupils need to learn and remember. Some pupils' learning is uneven as a result. Leaders should ensure that, in these remaining subjects, they clearly identify the content that pupils should learn and when this should be taught.

• Senior leaders have not provided sufficient opportunities for all subject leaders to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of learning in their subjects. This reduces leaders' ability to determine what is working well and to identify where further improvements are needed. Leaders should ensure that subject leaders are well equipped to support teachers to deliver the curriculum well.

• Leaders do not ensure that some aspects of the personal development programme are taught in sufficient depth. This means that some pupils are not as well prepared as they could be for living in modern Britain. Leaders should ensure that the personal development programme provides sufficient opportunity for pupils to develop their understanding of values such as democracy, and of the many ways in which people may be different.