Five Ashes CofE Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

This school cherishes every child and challenges them to thrive.

It is a nurturing place where staff greet pupils daily with a warm welcome. Pupils learn and play joyfully together. They are highly respectful of each other and are welcoming to visitors.

It is, therefore, a very welcoming place to be.

The school has high ambitions for all pupils. Recent developments, including a new leadership structure and an overhauled curriculum, have raised standards in key stages 1 and 2.

The updated curriculum ensures pupils in mixed-age classes benefit from an aspirational learning experience and achieve well. However, the quality of education is not of the sam...e high standards in the early years, where improvement work is in its infancy.

Pupils behave well and attend school regularly.

Learning is rarely interrupted and playtimes are enjoyable. Pupils appreciate the fact that staff understand them and their families very well. This helps pupils feel safe.

Pupils participate in a variety of clubs and trips. In addition to regular woodland days and sports competitions, staff continually seek ways to broaden pupils' horizons. This includes experiences that enable pupils to learn about culture, such as performing opera at Glyndebourne and attending an international tennis event in Eastbourne.

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

Since the previous inspection, the school has strengthened the design of the curriculum to ensure it is ambitious and meets the needs of pupils in mixed-aged group classes. It is organised well so that pupils learn content in a logical order, gradually building their knowledge over time.

Staff have strong subject knowledge.

They check pupils' understanding carefully so that they can pick up on and address misconceptions. Most staff model new learning with confidence. Pupils regularly revisit knowledge.

This helps them to remember what they have been taught. However, occasionally, tasks set for pupils do not precisely reflect the new curriculum. This can mean that pupils are not always exposed to the new, more ambitious learning, the school intends.

Reading is prioritised. Phonics begins as soon as children join Reception. Well-trained staff deliver the phonics programme effectively.

Pupils practise reading with books that are suitably matched to the sounds that they know. Pupils who struggle to keep up with the phonics programme are given the support they need. Older pupils benefit from a thoughtfully designed curriculum of ambitious texts.

This exposes pupils to a variety of genres and authors and encourages them to develop a love for reading.

In the early years, children are well cared for. They benefit from warm relationships with staff and a safe, happy environment.

However, some aspects of the provision are not as effective as in the rest of the school. Occasionally, staff are not secure in their subject knowledge. Activities do not always engage and enable children to develop and deepen their understanding of the intended curriculum.

The school is alert to these areas and is in the process of implementing improvements.

Pupils attend school regularly and behave highly positively. They exhibit high levels of respect driven by the school's community ethos.

However, in the early years, expectations are not as high. Here, frequent interruptions can make learning disjointed and difficult for others to follow.

Personal development is a strength at this school.

Pupils benefit from a clearly structured personal, social, health and economic curriculum which has been sequenced with care to ensure pupils get the right information at the right time. This includes essential learning about how to keep themselves safe online. Pupils enjoy representing their school in sporting activities.

They are taught about society and develop a good understanding of democracy and equality. Engaging moral education is delivered through assemblies, where pupils reflect on life lessons together. Citizenship is effectively developed through fundraising, community events and engagement with the older generation in the parish.

Governors have articulated a clear vision for the school, encompassing high expectations for pupils and staff. They ensure they receive the necessary information to properly understand the school's strengths and weaknesses, which they use to hold the school accountable. However, since the introduction of the new curriculum, leaders have not routinely evaluated its implementation.

They have not identified that some aspects of the curriculum are currently not delivered as intended.

Parents hold a highly positive view of the school. Teachers appreciate recent changes made to roles and responsibilities, which have improved their workload.

Staff value the highly inclusive and cohesive team spirit at this school.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Since the introduction of a new curriculum, leaders have not routinely monitored and evaluated its implementation.

This means they are not always aware of pockets of the curriculum that are not being implemented as they intended. This has, occasionally meant that some pupils have not fully experienced the newly designed, more ambitious curriculum as planned. The school must ensure it systematically reviews the implementation of the curriculum to identify and address any inconsistencies.

• Standards are not as high in the early years. Curriculum implementation does not always engage children or align fully with the intended curriculum. Additionally, some staff do not always have the subject knowledge needed to confidently deliver the intended curriculum and expectations are not as consistently high as they are in other key stages.

This means children are not learning as well as they could. The school has identified early years as a priority. All must ensure that planned curriculum improvements are implemented effectively and staff receive the necessary training to strengthen subject knowledge so that expectations for children's learning are raised to match the ambition of the curriculum.