Churchfields Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Churchfields Primary School is a warm and welcoming place. Pupils, staff, parents and carers are all proud to be part of this community. Pupils enjoy school and are happy here.

The provision for pupils' personal development is impressive and consistently of high quality. It is underpinned by the school's core values of aspiration, citizenship and excellence. Ensuring that pupils have a voice in their school is extremely important to leaders and staff.

Pupils are encouraged to be part of all school decision-making. For example, pupils suggest and help to run their own extra-curricular clubs. Pupils really value that leaders listen to them and take on board their sugges...tions.

Pupils especially like that their ideas have led to an increase in the number and variety of extra-curricular clubs on offer.

Pupils rise to the high expectations for their learning and behaviour. In lessons, they are focused and have positive attitudes to their learning.

They achieve well across the curriculum. Pupils and staff are positive about the recent changes to the school's approach to behaviour. Pupils know what is expected of them.

The three golden rules, 'ready, respectful and safe', are clear to all. Pupils are polite, well-mannered and courteous. Relationships between staff and pupils are nurturing.

Pupils feel safe. They trust that adults will deal with issues when they arise, such as bullying.

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

The curriculum that has been created by trust leaders is ambitious.

It matches and, in some subjects, exceeds the ambition of the national curriculum.

The curriculum has been carefully designed. Decisions about exactly what should be learned start from the early years.

Across the school, the curriculum identifies clearly the key knowledge and skills that pupils need to be taught and remember. This in-depth curriculum thinking supports teachers' subject knowledge well. Staff have the expertise to teach the curriculum, and this is complemented by teaching from subject specialists in some areas.

Learning is clearly sequenced. Lessons include lots of purposeful opportunities to revisit and build on what pupils have previously learned. Pupils are helped to connect what they learn in different subjects and this enables them to consolidate their knowledge further.

For example, in science, pupils in Year 3 practised what they had been taught in mathematics about using a ruler and tape measure. They used what they know to help them conduct a science experiment successfully. Pupils talk confidently about their learning in different subjects.

They are remembering what they are being taught.

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are fully included in school life. Pupils' needs are quickly identified and support is put in place.

Pupils with SEND in the mainstream classes learn the same curriculum as their peers.Effective adaptations are made that enable pupils to understand and remember the intended learning. However, this is not as well established for pupils with severe and complex needs who attend the school's additional resourced provision, the ARC.

Here, the delivery of the curriculum, including the activities pupils are given, is not as precisely targeted as it could be to overcoming pupils' specific barriers to learning. For these pupils, learning and activities are not broken down enough into small, achievable chunks that they can readily build on.

Pupils' journey to becoming a reader begins as soon as they start school.

The school's approach to phonics teaches pupils the sounds that letters make in a logical order. Daily phonics sessions provide regular opportunities for pupils to revisit their learning. This includes practice in using the sounds they have been taught to read words.

Pupils read books that are matched to the sounds that they know and have been taught. This helps them develop into confident and fluent readers. Pupils that are falling behind are identified.

Adults provide support in lessons and through additional reading sessions. However, most recently, the additional targeted and specific support has not been as timely as leaders intend. This means that the identified specific gaps in pupils' learning have not yet been addressed.

Pupils develop a love for reading through the high-quality texts used across the curriculum. They benefit from dedicated school libraries for fiction and non-fiction books. Adults read stories to them on a daily basis.

The approach to pupils' personal, social and health education is very well considered. It forms a key part of the school's rich, high-quality personal development provision. For example, pupils' understanding of the fundamental British values is developed throughout the curriculum and day-to-day school life.

Pupils are taught about relationships and different families. They have plentiful opportunities to explore feelings, emotions and their own well-being.

The trust and governing body know the school well.

They provide an effective balance of challenge and support.

Pupils' attendance is closely monitored by the trust and governing body. The school has clear and effective procedures in place to deal with concerns about absence.

Support for families is provided where needed.

Staff value the collaborative working across the trust. They enjoy working here.

They appreciate the efforts made to manage their workload and well-being.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• For pupils in the ARC, learning and activities are, at times, not as precisely matched to their complex needs as they should be.

The intended learning, while ambitious, is not always broken into small chunks that enable pupils to successfully learn. This means these pupils can experience cognitive overload and find it harder to connect new content with their prior knowledge. The trust should ensure that staff receive further training which focuses on strengthening their understanding of how pupils with complex needs learn and, in turn, enables them to make adaptations that increase pupils' success in learning the curriculum.

• Support for the weakest readers has recently not been as timely as is needed. This means these pupils have not yet had the targeted, specific support needed to address any gaps in their phonics knowledge. The trust needs to further prioritise making sure that the weakest readers get the full level of support that they need.

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