Dry Sandford Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school.

Due to the headteacher regularly monitoring lessons and providing good advice to staff, teaching has improved since the last inspection and is now typically good. Other senior leaders have contributed to this improvement by monitoring the teaching in lessons and pupils' work in the subjects for which they are responsible. Lessons are consistently well planned with tasks that meet the abilities of different groups of pupils, especially the requirements of disabled pupils or those with special educational needs.

As a result of the improvements in teaching, all groups of pupils are making good progress overall in reading, writing and mathem...atics. Relationships between staff and pupils are good, and behaviour is typically good. As a result pupils enjoy school and are keen to learn and feel safe.

Governors are well informed because they hold the school to account, through effective questioning of senior leaders about the performance of the school, and in particular about the quality of teaching and how well pupils progress in their learning. It is not yet an outstanding school because : Teaching is not yet outstanding. Teachers do not always provide for more-able older pupils to fully develop their reading skills, and they sometimes spend too long talking to pupils, particularly in their introductions to lessons.

As a result, time is sometimes wasted in getting pupils, especially the more able, quickly down to work on tasks that test their ability to think for themselves. Pupils are not consistently given time to work on the advice that teachers give them in marking about how to improve their work. Senior leaders, other than the headteacher, do not regularly observe teaching in different subjects.

As a result they miss opportunities to learn more generally how to improve the quality of teaching in their own subject areas.

Information about this school

Dry Sandford is smaller than the average sized primary school with pupils in Key Stage 2 being taught in mixed-age classes. Most pupils are White British.

The proportion of pupils supported through school action, school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is broadly in line with the national average. The proportion of pupils in receipt of pupil premium, which provides additional funding for children in local authority care, whose parents are in the armed forces, or who are known to be eligible for free school meals, is broadly in line with the national average. The school meets the current government floor standards, which set the minimum requirements for pupils' attainment and progress in English and mathematics by the end of Key Stage 2.