Coltishall Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils like their school. Pupils are happy and safe because teachers keep pupils' welfare at the forefront of their minds.

Pupils understand they can seek help from an adult if they ever have a concern. Most pupils learn well because of their teachers' high expectations.

Children's behaviour in Reception is exemplary because their teachers have established highly consistent routines.

Pupils attend regularly, and the majority of pupils behave consistently well. When they do not, most teachers intervene swiftly. Pupils listen attentively to their teacher and their friends.

They enjoy learning. Pupils participate with enthusiasm in class. Older pupils d...emonstrate considerable maturity.

They discuss and debate ideas with sensitivity.

Pupils appreciate a rich range of trips and other extra-curricular activities. They visit museums, sites of historical importance, the zoo and the theatre.

Pupils acknowledge how these experiences help enhance their curriculum knowledge. The buddy system ensures older pupils become important role models. They check on younger pupils' well-being.

Pupils have a voice, and their teachers listen. The school councillors' suggestions lead to changes in school life such as creating quiet areas where pupils can meet and reflect. Pupils raise money for charities and sing for the local community.

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

The school has an ambitious vision for its pupils' lives. The early years curriculum provides a firm foundation for future learning. The knowledge children gain is carefully chosen.

They have many opportunities to practise what they have learned. As a result, Reception-age children quickly build an understanding of the world around them. They develop a rich vocabulary to express their ideas and emotions.

They are resilient learners and work well with their friends.

In most areas of the curriculum, the knowledge pupils learn builds on prior learning. This ensures that pupils grasp more sophisticated ideas and apply their knowledge independently.

In mathematics, for example, pupils share their knowledge to tackle complex problems. They use precise subject-specific vocabulary to explain their working out. Pupils are confident learners and embrace more demanding work.

The school is refining some other areas of the curriculum to ensure pupils achieve the same high expectations.

Children in Reception learn to read well. They gain new sounds with ease.

They blend these sounds to read new words and sentences. In Year 1, pupils read familiar language with some fluency. They apply their phonics knowledge to read unfamiliar words.

Older pupils are confident, expressive readers. At their best, pupils construct highly imaginative stories. They write at length on a range of themes such as space travel, environmental issues and the First World War.

Teachers carefully check how well pupils read. Pupils who fall behind receive immediate support, and they improve.

The school works with a range of agencies to identify pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

Leaders provide guidance to staff on how best to support pupils with SEND. However, some teachers do not adapt the writing curriculum appropriately for some younger pupils with SEND. Furthermore, teachers do not rigorously identify spelling, punctuation and grammar errors in these pupils' written work.

Therefore, some pupils with SEND do not achieve as well as they could. Leaders are aware.

Teachers in reception demonstrate the exact behaviours they want children to adopt.

Pupils across the school understand how their actions may make others feel. Pupils know what is right and what is wrong. At times, a small minority of pupils' behaviour can be challenging.

Leaders respond appropriately. Suspensions are used as a last resort. When pupils return to school, they receive support to manage their behaviour better.

The school's provision for pupils' wider development is a strength. The personal, social and health education curriculum ensures pupils build an age-appropriate understanding of how their bodies develop as they mature. Pupils know how to nurture healthy relationships based on respect and trust.

While their knowledge of world religions is more limited, pupils embrace difference and diversity in society. They challenge any prejudice and discrimination. Pupils are kind, open-minded and caring.

Staff appreciate the high-quality training they receive, which helps them to implement most areas of the curriculum well. They are proud to work at the school. A significant majority of parents are pleased with the education their children receive.

However, leaders do not rigorously check how well some areas of school provision are operating. As a result, some actions to improve the school are not as precise or as swift as they could be. Leaders understand that more robust evaluation will strengthen their capacity to improve the school further.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Some teachers do not adapt the writing curriculum well enough for some pupils with SEND. Furthermore, they do not rigorously identify spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors in these pupils' work.

As a result of this, pupils with SEND do not learn to write as well as they could. The school must ensure that teachers support pupils' writing more effectively and systematically check the quality of pupils' work to ensure that pupils with SEND achieve better. ? Leaders' monitoring of some areas of school provision is not as rigorous as it could be.

As a result, leaders are not as well informed of how well the school is functioning. Some of their actions to improve the school are not as precise or as swift as they could be. Leaders need to ensure more robust monitoring of some areas of school provision such as pupils' participation in extra-curricular activities and attendance records, for example, so they have a precise understanding of what the school does well and how it needs to improve.