Edward Pauling Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy attending Edward Pauling Primary School. Consideration has been given to pupils' social and emotional development.

Relationships between staff and pupils are positive. This helps pupils to feel secure and safe in school. Most pupils behave well.

However, in some lessons, pupils lose focus and find it difficult to sustain concentration. This means that the learning in some lessons is disrupted.

Pupils enjoy learning a wide range of subjects.

This starts in the early years, where staff focus on encouraging children's language and communication skills. Younger pupils particularly enjoy the books that staff read to them. Pupils demonstrate r...espect and understanding for people from different backgrounds and cultures.

The school enables pupils to celebrate the diversity within the school community.

While pupils learn successfully in some subjects, this is not consistent. The expectations of what pupils can achieve in their learning are not high enough.

There is much variability in how well the curriculum is implemented. For example, there are inconsistencies in the way teaching helps pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) to access the curriculum. As a result, some pupils do not learn as well as they should.

They are not as well prepared as they need to be for the next stage of their education.

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

The school has designed a curriculum that identifies the key knowledge it wants pupils to learn. However, the standards that pupils achieve in reading and mathematics are not high enough.

Staff are ambitious for what pupils can achieve, including those with SEND. Staff and leaders at all levels want to see a return to the high-quality education that they know pupils deserve. While the school has rightly taken action to make improvements, for example through revising the curriculum, these ambitions are not yet fully realised in practice.

The curriculum is not taught consistently well. Systems to check pupils' understanding and address misconceptions are not securely in place. In some subjects where the curriculum has been recently revised, the work given is not always well matched so that it builds on pupils' prior knowledge.

Pupils do not develop secure knowledge when the curriculum is not monitored carefully to ensure pupils' learning is strong.

Pupils with SEND are accurately identified. However, the adaptations made by teachers to support these pupils are not matched to their needs precisely enough.

As a result, some pupils with SEND do not make as much progress through the curriculum as they should.

Children make a strong start in early years. Staff accurately identify their various starting points from the Nursery onwards.

They follow a carefully designed curriculum that helps to develop children's understanding across all areas of learning well. Meaningful interactions between adults and children support their development. Staff communicate with parents regularly and show them what their children have learned.

Learning is further enhanced by a well-resourced and carefully designed outdoor play space. There are a wide variety of opportunities for children to develop their fine and gross motor skills.

The school has recently introduced a new approach to teaching phonics.

This programme is not fully embedded. There is inconsistency in how well it is delivered. Recent training has been well received by staff.

However, the strategies pupils should use to help them read unfamiliar words are not modelled with sufficient accuracy or precision. As a result, too many pupils do not keep up with the pace of the phonics programme. These pupils do not receive the help that they need to catch up quickly.

Some pupils find it hard to concentrate at times. This can lead to them becoming disengaged from their learning. When this happens, staff do not follow the school's agreed strategies for managing behaviour consistently well.

This is because staff do not have a strong shared understanding of how to use the school's recently revised behaviour policy and approaches. Leaders have taken effective action to ensure that pupils attend school regularly and on time.

Leaders' work to encourage pupils' personal development is well considered.

Pupils take on roles of responsibility, such as representing their class on the school council. They take part in fundraising activities for carefully chosen local and national charities. The school enables pupils to develop an understanding of the fundamental British values of democracy, mutual respect and tolerance.

There are opportunities for pupils to develop their talents and interests through a range of after-school clubs. Pupils were excited to share their experiences of recent trips linked to the curriculum, such as to local museums.

Parents and carers appreciate the care and support the school provides for their children.

Governors have pupils' best interests at the heart of their work. Governors visit the school regularly to find out what is happening and to monitor the school's priorities for improvement. They have recently strengthened systems to ensure more rigorous oversight of the school's work.

Many staff feel well supported in terms of their training and professional development. The school is aware that there is work to do to ensure all staff are well equipped to make the changes that are needed in the school.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The school has not ensured that staff deliver the school's phonics programme consistently well. This hinders pupils in learning to read because they do not develop the phonics knowledge required to decode unfamiliar words. The school should ensure that it has a rigorous process in place to monitor the effectiveness of early reading so that it can swiftly identify any staff who need support to improve their practice.

In some subjects, the curriculum is not delivered consistently well. This means that some pupils, including some with SEND, do not build strong bodies of knowledge in these subjects. The school should ensure that staff receive the support that they need to deliver the curriculum well in each subject.

• Some pupils are not engaged in their learning during lessons and, at times, this is not noticed by staff. This means these pupils are not learning the curriculum as well as they should. The school should ensure that staff apply the new behaviour policy and recommended strategies consistently effectively so that pupils can engage with their learning and achieve more highly.