Crosby-on-Eden CofE School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy coming to this welcoming and happy school. They said that they feel happy and supported. Pupils know and live out the school's values fully.

Caring staff build strong and positive relationships with children in the early years and pupils across the rest of the school. Pupils feel valued for who they are.

Typically, pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), achieve well across the curriculum.

Pupils are eager to learn. They strive to realise the school's aspirations for their success. They make the most of the learning opportunities that the school provides for them.

Pupils enjoy visits to the loca...l museum, the zoo or to the pantomime.

Classrooms are calm and purposeful. Pupils are polite and well mannered.

They trust that staff will help them with any worries or concerns that they may have. Older pupils ensure that those younger than themselves are looked after well during lunchtimes and playtimes.

Pupils enjoy the range of activities on offer beyond the academic curriculum.

For example, they look forward to residential visits where they spend time with their friends. Pupils attend a range of clubs, such as sport, craft and gardening. Many of these are run by members of the school council.

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

The ambitious curriculum is well-organised and carefully structured from the beginning of the early years through to the end of key stage 2. The curriculum in the early years is particularly well-thought-through. It inspires children to learn.

This helps them to be exceptionally well prepared for key stage 1.

Pupils develop a thirst for facts, and they are keen to broaden their knowledge. This is especially true in the early years.

Children are thrilled to showcase their learning. For example, they confidently shared their vast knowledge of sunflowers through painting, printing, construction and 3D modelling.

The school has identified the essential knowledge that pupils should gain so that their learning builds securely over time.

However, in some subjects, pupils have gaps in their learning due to weaknesses in the previous curriculum. In these subjects, staff have not identified or addressed the gaps in pupils' knowledge well enough. This means that some pupils do not have a secure foundation on which to build new learning.

Staff ensure that pupils revisit the important knowledge within each new curriculum unit of work. However, opportunities for pupils to revisit and recap knowledge from their previous learning in other year groups is not as secure. This hinders some pupils from recalling what they have learned over time.

The school prioritises reading. Pupils benefit from a wide range of reading resources which promote access to, and a love of, reading. Children are immersed in high-quality texts from the moment that they join the early years.

Staff have benefited from the training that they have received to deliver the phonics programme. They do this consistently well. Children in the Nursery class gain a strong start to reading through the language-rich environment in which they work.

In the Reception class, children learn to link sounds and letters to read familiar and unfamiliar words. This continues across key stage 1 so that pupils become confident and fluent readers by the end of Year 2.

The school ensures that pupils with SEND are identified as soon as they join in the early years.

Detailed information about the needs of each pupil with SEND ensures that staff adapt the delivery of the curriculum effectively. This allows pupils with SEND to progress well through the curriculum and achieve well.

Children in the early years learn the importance of sharing and taking turns.

Most pupils respond well to the school's high expectations of their behaviour. Pupils' rates of attendance at school are high. The school has been very successful in ensuring that parents, carers and pupils recognise the importance of being in school each day.

The school provides a rich set of experiences to enhance pupils' understanding of the wider world. These opportunities help pupils to become confident and responsible citizens. Pupils have a keen understanding of tolerance, equality and democracy.

For example, pupils are voted into leadership roles such as school councillors, reading and playground buddies. The school listens to pupils' views. For instance, pupils choose the charities that they wish to support.

The school fosters a positive and supportive culture among staff. Staff recognise and appreciate the training opportunities that are provided. The school has taken carefully considered actions to support the workload demands on staff, for example by streamlining the documentation for pupils with SEND.

Trustees and members of the local governing body have an accurate understanding of the quality of education that pupils receive. They have the necessary skills and commitment to support the school to improve further.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In some subjects, some pupils have gaps in their knowledge due to weaknesses in the previous curriculum. These gaps are not identified or addressed well enough by staff. This hinders pupils' progress through these subject curriculums.

The school should make sure that staff enable pupils to overcome the gaps in their previous learning so that they have secure foundations on which to build new subject information. ? In some subjects, pupils do not have enough opportunity to revisit their learning from previous units of work. This makes it difficult for pupils to remember what they have been taught over time.

The school should ensure that staff enable pupils to recap their previous learning so that they know and remember more over time.

Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

In the report, 'disadvantaged pupils' is used to mean pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND); pupils who meet the definition of children in need of help and protection; pupils receiving statutory local authority support from a social worker; and pupils who otherwise meet the criteria used for deciding the school's pupil premium funding (this includes pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years, looked after children (children in local authority care) and/or children who left care through adoption or another formal route).