Donnington Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy coming to this school because their classmates are kind and they like learning new things.

They have strong working relationships with adults and are well cared for. Pupils behave sensibly and reported incidents of bullying are rare. The many in-year new joiners are helped to settle in quickly.

Parents and carers are very positive about the school. They highlighted the strong sense of community and the help and care given to their children.

Leaders strive to enable all pupils to achieve highly.

They keep the curriculum under constant review. They drive improvements with thought and determination. There are strong processes in place to id...entify and provide targeted support to pupils who need extra help to succeed.

This includes pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those at the earliest stage of speaking English as an additional language. As a result, pupils achieve well. Children in early years are well prepared for entry to Year 1.

Leaders also work with external charities to help raise pupils' achievements and aspirations. For example, Year 6 recently spent a week having lessons in different subjects from university lecturers and visiting university campuses. The programme culminated in a 'graduation' and pupils writing about their ambitions for their future careers.

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

Leaders make the teaching of reading a priority. Staff have the expertise to teach phonics effectively. They check pupils' phonic knowledge often.

Those pupils who are falling behind receive targeted extra support. Pupils practise their reading often. They read books matched to the sounds that they have learned.

Staff provide workshops for parents on how to support their children's reading. All of this positive work helps pupils to become confident and fluent readers.

Curriculum leaders, many new to their posts, give much thought to what they want pupils to know and when.

They identified that although pupils achieve well, they could be doing even better. They have thus made well-considered changes to their curriculum planning. In making these improvements, they ensure that staff receive subject-specific training.

This supports staff to teach the different subjects skilfully. Furthermore, leaders acquire suitable resources to support the teaching of the curriculum, and staff aim to use these resources to deepen pupils' knowledge and skills. These developments are a work in progress.

In several subjects, the changes are embedded and raising achievement. Others are at an earlier stage of implementation.

Early years leaders ensure there is ambition in the curriculum.

They liaise with subject leaders and ensure that the curriculum prepares children well for building on their knowledge in Year 1. Across the school and subjects, teachers assess pupils' knowledge often. They use the information well.

They adapt the teaching of the curriculum to meet pupils' needs and address misconceptions.

Leaders have robust systems in place to identify pupils with SEND. They assess individual needs and work with external therapists when warranted.

They create bespoke support plans for pupils and keep these under review. Staff are well trained in how to support and make adaptations for pupils with SEND. Some key staff are trained as experts in areas of need such as speech and communication and autism spectrum disorder.

With the help they receive, pupils with SEND access the same curriculum as their peers.

In the early years, children are taught independence, resilience and self-regulation. They mostly pay attention during formal carpet sessions.

However, sometimes they get a bit restless. Pupils are curious and work hard in a calm and purposeful manner. On the odd occasion, there is a bit of low-level disruption.

This can occur when pupils are not taught by their regular class teacher.

Staff teach pupils about how to form healthy relationships. They also help pupils to understand the concept of consent.

They give pupils opportunities to practise democracy. For example, pupils voted on what equipment they wanted in the new playground. Pupils can attend a range of clubs such as gardening, mindfulness and sports.

Staff and outside agencies provide pupils, and their families, with a wide range of pastoral support. Music has a high profile in the school, with assemblies providing a time for pupils to come together and sing joyfully. Music provision also includes a musicianship class for promising Year 5 pupils.

Pupils can choose to join the school choir and are encouraged to avail themselves of subsidised individual and group guitar and violin lessons.

Leaders pay attention to staff welfare. They aim to make sure that staff have a reasonable work–life balance.

Governors worked closely with school leaders and staff to agree on the school's values and aims. These inform school policies and practices. For example, the behaviour management approach was revised.

It has changed from being punitive to a positive, celebratory and rewards-based system. Records show that misbehaviour incidents have significantly reduced.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

There is a strong safeguarding culture in the school. Staff have regular safeguarding training, and leaders emphasise the need to be vigilant and report all concerns, even if they are seemingly minor. The safeguarding team meets fortnightly to review all safeguarding, welfare and behavioural concerns.

Leaders arrange timely support, be it internally such as art therapy or counselling, or refer pupils to external agencies such as the local authority early help team or social services.

Through the curriculum, pupils are taught about risk, safe practices and how to seek help if they are worried, such as when using social media.There are secure systems in place for vetting the suitability of applicants when appointing new staff.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In some subjects, revised and improved ambitious curriculum thinking and implementation are at the early stages of being embedded. This means that pupils do not achieve as highly as they could. Leaders should ensure that across the subjects, they fully and securely embed the revised planned curriculums so that pupils can achieve their full potential.

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