Dulverton Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

From the early years, nurturing relationships with adults help children feel secure at this school.

Pupils take responsiblity for making the school a harmonious place for everyone. Older pupils help their younger buddies to settle in. Pupils help each other with classroom tasks.

They make sure other pupils are included at playtimes. Staff help pupils to reflect on how they can be kind to others within and outside the school. Pupils collect items for a foodbank and write to local care home residents, for instance.

Staff have high expectations. They provide excellent support to ensure that pupils achieve high outcomes across the curriculum, including pupils wit...h special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). This begins in the early years, where adults expertly extend children's knowledge and language.

Children get off to a very strong start.The school provides a comprehensive wider offer which is of excellent quality. Wide ranging activities such as cooking, curling and drama are strongly taken up.

Many pupils take instrumental music tuition. The school's rich selection of educational visits extends pupils' learning across the full breadth of the curriculum. The school provides ambitious opportunities.

For example, pupils take part in an opera production in Year 6.

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

Leaders have a clear vision for how pupils' knowledge and skills will develop over time. Curriculum content is well sequenced and ambitious.

A rich curriculum in the early years develops children's foundational knowledge. As a result, they are well prepared for later learning. For example, children observe plant and animal habitats during outdoor learning in Nursery and Reception.

They draw on this when classifying organisms in Year 1 and when learning about plant and animal reproduction later on.Teachers have strong subject knowledge and expertise. From the early years, staff deliver the curriculum with a rigorous focus on building upon pupils' prior knowledge.

For instance, teachers encourage pupils in Year 4 to draw on their scientific knowledge of circuits and energy efficiency when designing their own portable lights in design and technology (DT). Teachers present information clearly and support pupils to extend their thinking. They check pupils' understanding and address any misconceptions swiftly.

Pupils develop detailed knowledge across the curriculum. They discuss their learning keenly, such as the influence of music on Kandinsky's artwork in Year 1, the pitfalls of breadmaking in Year 5, and the function of an algorithm in Year 6. Pupils produce work of excellent quality.

The school identifies the needs of pupils with SEND precisely. Provision for them is carefully thought out. Staff meet pupils' needs through a wide range of individualised approaches which focus well on both their academic, and social and emotional development.

Reading is given high priority. The school provides a wide range of fascinating, high-quality texts. Pupils learn about different writers and their approaches, through author studies.

They talk with confidence about which authors they enjoy reading and why. Pupils at the early stages of reading are taught the phonics knowledge they need through a highly systematic approach. Staff identify any gaps in their knowledge precisely and address them swiftly.

Regular, focused reading practice allows pupils to rehearse the sounds they have been taught. As a result, pupils read with fluency, confidence and enjoyment.Pupils' behaviour is exemplary.

From the early years, children concentrate for sustained periods without distraction. Pupils throughout the school are attentive. They focus well and move between activities seamlessly.

As a result, time is purposefully focused on learning. Pupils rarely miss a day of school. The school responds swiftly to absences.

The school's curriculum for pupils' personal, social, health and economic education is thoughtful. Pupils are taught extensively about citizenship. They routinely volunteer and fundraise.

Pupils confidently recall what they have learned about how to stay healthy and safe, including online. They know about different backgrounds and the importance of tolerance and respect. Pupils learn about fundamental British values, such as democracy in UK government and practise it for themselves.

For instance, they write a 'manifesto' and vote at a ballot box for school council elections.Leaders, including governors, continually review the school's work and oversee improvements to its already strong provision. Staff share leaders' ambitious vision.

Training develops their expertise well. Staff at all levels report that this is a lovely place to work and that they are well supported.

Leaders engage parents and carers thoughtfully in a way that supports pupils' education.

For example, all parents are invited to come into the school and read with their children on a weekly basis and a very large number take up this opportunity. Parents routinely report highly positive views of the school.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.