Flixton Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Flixton Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy to belong to this warm and friendly school. They particularly value the positive relationships that they forge with staff. Pupils are kind to each other.

This culture of care helps pupils to flourish.

Pupils are eager to learn. Their curiosity is sparked by a wealth of trips and visits which help to bring the curriculum to life.

They said that teachers make learning interesting and memorable. In accordance with the school's motto, 'success comes through personal effort', pupils strive to try their best. This helps them to meet the school's high expectation...s of their achievement.

Starting in the early years, children learn to live up to the school's rules. Across the school, pupils behave well and are considerate of others. They particularly delight in 'merit assemblies' which are a joyous celebration of pupils' positive behaviour and effort.

Pupils benefit from the rich and varied extra-curricular opportunities that the school provides. For instance, from the Nursery class to Year 6, pupils participate in the 'grounds' programme. This includes growing vegetables and working as a team to complete challenges such as bridge building.

These experiences help pupils to develop into confident and resilient individuals.

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

The school provides an engaging and ambitious curriculum for pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Reading is at the heart of that curriculum.

The school expects pupils to develop a love of reading, and most do. Pupils eagerly anticipate reading assemblies where staff share new book recommendations. The school's 'reading racetrack' motivates pupils to read often.

They enjoy moving their cars further around the track as a reward for reading frequently. Pupil librarians take pride in their role in helping to run the school and class libraries.

Children in the Nursery class are immersed in stories and songs to help develop their language skills.

Children in the Reception class benefit from a phonics programme that is delivered extremely well. They read books that are closely matched to the sounds that they know. Expert staff provide swift and effective help to any pupils who need to catch up.

Almost all pupils learn to read confidently and fluently by the end of key stage 1.

Within each subject, the curriculum is well organised and logically ordered. In the main, the important knowledge that pupils should learn has been identified.

Recently, the school has strengthened the curriculum in the early years to ensure that it provides a firm foundation for learning in key stage 1. However, in some areas of learning, this work is at an earlier stage. In these areas, some children in the early years are not as well prepared for their future learning as they should be.

Teachers are knowledgeable about the subjects that they teach. They explain new concepts clearly. During lessons, teachers frequently check that pupils understand their learning and they address pupils' misconceptions.

In most subjects, pupils build secure bodies of knowledge. However, in some subjects, the school's approach to checking that pupils remember their learning over time does not reflect the important knowledge in the curriculum. This hinders teachers from quickly identifying and remedying any missing knowledge.

The school promptly identifies any additional needs that pupils may have. Starting from the early years, staff are swift to provide the help and resources that these children and pupils need so that they can access the curriculum. Pupils with SEND learn successfully alongside their peers.

The school places a strong emphasis on pupils' personal development. Older pupils take the lead in setting up extra-curricular clubs which enable them to share their talents and interests with others, for example the knitting club. Pupils learn about the importance of embracing and accepting difference and avoiding stereotypical thinking.

From the Nursery class to Year 6, well-established routines ensure that the atmosphere in the school is calm and purposeful. Pupils are polite. They are attentive during lessons and respond quickly to staff.

On those occasions when pupils struggle to behave as the school expects, they receive thoughtful support which helps them to learn how to make better choices in the future. Pupils said that they enjoy school. They attend frequently.

Staff are proud to work at the school. They appreciate that they are given time to develop their subjects and to work in their year group teams. Knowledgeable governors are well informed about the school.

They use their expertise to support and challenge the school to continue to refine the quality of education that it provides.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In the early years, the school has not completed the process of identifying what children need to learn in the Nursery and Reception classes.

This means that in some areas of learning, a small number of children are not as well prepared for their key stage 1 learning as they should be. The school should ensure that subject leaders and staff in the early years are clear about the knowledge that children should learn so that they get off to a flying start when they enter key stage 1. ? In some subjects, the school has not ensured that teachers carefully check that over time, pupils know and remember the essential knowledge that is identified in the curriculum.

This means that on occasions, some pupils develop gaps in their learning which are not swiftly identified and addressed. The school should ensure that assessment strategies are closely aligned with the intended curriculum so that teachers identify with accuracy where pupils need to revisit previous learning.

Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good.

This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

This is the second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in October 2014.