Chetwynde School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy being part of the close-knit community at Chetwynde School.

Staff know pupils well and understand their needs. Staff ensure that pupils feel involved and included in school life.

Pupils are helped to develop positive behaviours.

They follow well-established routines. This ensures that pupils enjoy a calm and orderly atmosphere in lessons and around the school site.

Across the primary and secondary age-phases, staff have appropriately high expectations of what pupils should learn and can achieve.

Pupils are well supported to realise these expectations. They typically achieve well.

Pupils understand the importance of deve...loping respect, responsibility and resilience.

They have good relationships with each other and with staff. Typically, pupils show a commitment to looking after each other. They are appropriately supported by staff when occasionally there are small incidents of unkindness.

Pupils of all ages are eager to learn beyond the curriculum through the clubs and sporting opportunities that are on offer. This helps pupils to develop their confidence and to strengthen their talents. For example, pupils particularly enjoy the opportunities to take part in school productions and singing events with other schools.

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

Trust leaders, the local governing body and the school have successfully tackled the weaknesses in the quality of education identified at the previous inspection. They have established a culture in which staff are well supported to develop their understanding and delivery of the curriculum. The school carefully considers the workload of staff when introducing change.

Pupils throughout the school benefit from a suitably broad and balanced curriculum.Staff have secure subject knowledge. They are usually very clear about the knowledge that pupils should learn and the order in which it will be taught.

This ensures that most pupils are ready to learn new subject content in the next stage of their education.

Children in early years benefit from well-designed opportunities to learn through play and while learning with adults. Pupils in other key stages typically benefit from teachers' clear explanations.

They complete tasks that are well matched to the content of the curriculum. This ensures that they learn key knowledge effectively. Staff use assessment strategies well to identify what pupils know and remember.

Many pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), are well supported when they have gaps in their knowledge. As a result, pupils usually make good gains in what they know and remember across the subjects that they study. However, in a few places, some pupils do not acquire new knowledge as securely as they should.

This is because the support that pupils receive does not focus well enough on the specific gaps in their knowledge.

Pupils of all ages, including children in early years, demonstrate positive attitudes towards their learning. Their eagerness to take part in lessons ensures that they usually learn without disruption.

The published data indicates that the proportion of Year 1 pupils meeting the expected standard in the phonics screening check was below the national average in 2023. The school is taking appropriate action to improve pupils' success in grasping the phonics code. Staff are well trained to deliver a new programme for early reading.

Children and pupils in the Nursery and Reception classes are taught to read as soon as they join the school. Children in Nursery Year practise saying and signing well-chosen sounds. Staff ensure that pupils in Years 1 and 2 are systematically introduced to the letters and sounds that help them to develop their reading.

Pupils are supported with appropriate books and resources that are well matched to the sounds that they know. Consequently, pupils use their phonics knowledge with increasing confidence and accuracy to read with fluency.

The school ensures that gaps in older pupils' reading knowledge are identified promptly and accurately.

Pupils in the primary age-phase are provided with regular, focused catch-up sessions delivered by well-trained staff. Pupils in the secondary age-phase practise reading during their subject lessons. Consequently, most pupils are well equipped with the phonics and reading knowledge that they need to read confidently when learning in other subjects.

However, many pupils do not demonstrate a positive habit of reading for pleasure. This hinders the breadth and richness of pupils' wider reading experiences.

The school ensures that the needs of pupils with SEND are accurately identified.

Staff are appropriately trained so that they typically provide effective support to these pupils in lessons. Pupils with SEND are included in all aspects of school life. They enjoy taking part in the same enrichment opportunities as other pupils.

Pupils benefit from good-quality opportunities that promote their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Well-trained staff ensure that pupils learn about how to look after themselves and others. Pupils gain important knowledge about attitudes, traits and skills that will help them to make decisions about their future and to be ready for life in modern Britain.

The school thoughtfully engages with parents and carers. Parents are well informed about the education their children are receiving. Most parents appreciate the school's commitment to listening to and addressing parents' views or concerns.

The trust and members of the local governing body undertake their roles effectively. They use their rich insights into the education and other opportunities on offer to support and challenge the school rigorously.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• At times, the support that pupils receive does not focus well enough on the gaps that they have in their knowledge. This means that some pupils struggle to understand what they are learning and, as a result, do not make the same gains in what they know and remember as others do. The school should ensure that staff use what they know about gaps in pupils' knowledge to shape the support that they receive.

• Many pupils do not read for pleasure as widely or as often as they should. This means that opportunities to develop their reading fluency and comprehension beyond the curriculum are limited. The school should ensure that pupils are encouraged and supported to read a rich and diverse range of texts regularly.