Earlham Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school Since his appointment, the headteacher has brought about rapid improvements through his commitment, high expectations and ambition for the school. As a result, the quality of teaching and pupils' progress are good and the school continues to improve. The governing body is effective.

Governors are highly skilled and know the school well, including its strengths and weaknesses. They provide effective support and challenge to senior leaders to drive improvements. Middle leaders have improved their monitoring skills through effective support and training.

As a result, they successfully track the progress of pupils and contribute to improving ...the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. Disadvantaged pupils, pupils who speak English as an additional language and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress because of the strong additional support they receive from staff. Pupils' behaviour is good and pupils have positive attitudes to learning.

Pupils are polite, courteous and respectful to each other and adults. They are proud of their achievements. The great majority of parents and carers hold the school in high regard.

Children in the early years make a good start to their education. They make good progress from their different and often low starting points, and are prepared well for Year 1. Pupils are kept safe and are well cared for.

Their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is strong. There is some teaching, learning and assessment practice that is highly effective in some classes. However, this excellent practice is not always widely shared to help all staff to improve their skills further.

Sometimes, teachers' expectations of pupils' work, including presentation, are not high enough. In a small number of classes, work is not challenging enough for the most able pupils. Occasionally, the most able pupils have to wait for harder tasks to test their thinking.

Although standards have improved markedly overall, pupils do not always make the same strong progress in reading as they do in mathematics and writing. Overall, attendance is rising and is close to the national average. However, pupils from some key groups are persistently absent.

Information about this school

The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website. This school is larger than the average-sized primary school. The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds is well above average.

The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is well above average. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils supported by the pupil premium is above the national average. The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is above the national average.

Children attend a morning Nursery class and two full-time Reception classes. The vast majority of children transfer from Nursery to the Reception classes. Currently, there a very few most-able children and disadvantaged children in the Nursery and Reception classes.

A higher-than-average proportion of pupils join the school in different year groups other than at the normal times. The school meets the government's current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for attainment and progress by the end of Year 6. The school runs a breakfast club for targeted pupils and range of after-school activities.

There have been a number of changes to staffing since the previous inspection. The school now has stability in staffing. The headteacher was appointed in September 2015 and the new permanent leadership team was appointed in September 2016.