Cold Harbour Church of England School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

The school provides pupils with the right encouragement to achieve its motto of 'let your light shine'. The school's key values include thankfulness, trust and honesty.

Children in the Reception Year show these values in a calm, secure setting. As pupils go through the school, they become balanced and considerate pupils ready for secondary school.

The school has developed its curriculum considerably since the last inspection.

Pupils achieve well in early reading because the school has prioritised this. The school has considered what the curriculum should include carefully. It has supported teachers in how to deliver lessons effectively.

As a result, ...pupils are learning more and remembering more across the school.

The school is determined to give pupils all the opportunities that they can. Pupils appreciate what the school provides, with one pupil saying, 'We are very lucky at our school.'

For example, the school thinks very carefully about what more vulnerable pupils need to overcome any difficulties. Pupils see differences in people as positive and that everyone should be respected. They welcome new pupils with open arms and get on very well with each other.

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

The school demonstrates a strong ambition to give all pupils the best education it can. The school has adopted a curriculum that ensures pupils learn key knowledge, skills and vocabulary in a well-sequenced order. This means pupils are now achieving well across the curriculum.

Staff include pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities at every stage of learning.

Overall, pupils learn to read well because the school has prioritised phonics teaching. The school has a strong fidelity to its phonics scheme.

This means pupils at the earliest stages of reading are getting the effective support that they need. Teachers check regularly how well pupils are learning phonics. The school provides any necessary additional support swiftly for younger pupils.

Pupils enjoy the texts that they read, and pupils of all ages speak of the books their teachers read to them with positivity. However, a few older pupils are not always given the reading support they need. This means these pupils are not making the rapid progress that they could.

Overall, the school is embedding the rest of the curriculum effectively. Staff are implementing the new curriculum well. In mathematics, lessons are well structured and build on one another.

Should teachers identify any gaps in pupils' mathematical learning, they address them quickly. In all other subjects, the quality of teaching and learning is strong and expectations are high for what pupils can achieve. However, because the developments in the curriculum are embedding overall, pupils do not always have secure knowledge across the curriculum.

The school is developing its systems to check how well all pupils are learning the curriculum so gaps in knowledge in all subjects can be filled quickly.

Pupils' behaviour is friendly and calm. Pupils show a strong sense of right and wrong.

This creates classroom environments where pupils can learn. Pupils work hard in lessons because they want to learn. Pupils' learning is rarely disrupted by the behaviour of others.

Pupils are confident that staff will sort any problems, whether in the classroom or on the playground. Outside, pupils play well with one another. The school has a very calm and reassuring approach to pupils who sometimes find it hard to behave in the way the school would like.

The school provides some excellent wider opportunities, particularly for disadvantaged pupils. Recently the school has provided dance, music therapy and cycling experiences for specific pupils. This has improved these pupils' self-confidence and attendance markedly.

All pupils have full access to clubs and trips. Pupils show significant maturity and understanding of age-appropriate relationship education. For example, Year 6 pupils have a strong sense of the importance of consent and that everyone's body is their own.

Governors have ensured that the school's provision has developed significantly in recent years. They make key decisions with a clear vision of what they want to achieve. They fulfil their statutory responsibilities with diligence.

Staff are proud to work at the school and want to make the difference to every pupil. Parents acknowledge the school's qualities too, with one parent saying: 'Cold Harbour has always supported both of my children from Reception and through to key stage 2. The leadership team are very approachable and keen to assist in any way they can.

We cannot recommend this school highly enough.'

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The reading support given to some key stage 2 pupils is not always precise enough.

This limits these pupils' ability to decode texts accurately and fluently. The school should ensure that support for pupils who are at the early stages of reading in key stage 2 enables them to secure and apply their phonics knowledge so that they quickly become confident and fluent readers. ? The implementation of the curriculum in some foundation subjects is embedding.

In these subjects, pupils have not always studied a curriculum that clearly identified the important knowledge they need to learn. Consequently, pupils are not secure in what they can remember in these subjects. The school should ensure that its new curriculum plans are implemented and monitored effectively to help pupils remember and use important subject knowledge.

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