Flushing School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy coming to this caring school.

The warm relationships they have with the adults in the school help them feel safe and happy. Through their positive attitudes, pupils demonstrate the school's values of friendship, kindness, trust, hope, forgiveness and creativity.

Pupils behave well around the school.

They are polite and courteous to staff, visitors and one another. At breaktime, they enjoy playing with their friends. Older pupils act as playground buddies for younger pupils.

The school has high expectations of pupils' learning, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils rise to meet these expectatio...ns. They work hard in lessons and try their best to succeed.

Most pupils achieve well across the curriculum.

The school encourages pupils to take up leadership positions, for example being members of the school council. Pupils say that they know staff listen to their ideas.

Members of the school's eco council share their pride in having introduced paper recycling into classrooms to reduce waste.

Pupils take part in the wide range of activities that the school provides for them. These include sporting and creative events at the local secondary school.

These opportunities nurture pupils' talents and contribute to their wider development.

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

The curriculum is broad and ambitious. The school has carefully considered the important knowledge and skills they want pupils to learn.

These have been logically sequenced to help pupils learn and remember more over time. For example, in geography, younger pupils learn about human and physical features in the school grounds. Older pupils build on this knowledge.

They confidently identify the same features in the local area, then use their understanding to explain the impact of humans on the local environment.

Reading has a high priority throughout the school. Over the past two years, the teaching of reading has improved.

The phonics programme starts in the Reception class. By the end of key stage 1, most pupils successfully learn to read with confidence and fluency. Those pupils who struggle to keep up with their peers get the help they need to catch up from well-trained staff.

Throughout the school, staff foster pupils' love of reading. Teachers read carefully chosen texts to their classes. Staff ensure that the books pupils read represent life in modern Britain.

Pupils with SEND are well cared for. They access the full curriculum alongside their peers. The school has recently introduced systems to identify the needs of these pupils.

Where this information is well used, staff adapt learning to meet pupils' needs. However, for some pupils with SEND, this work is in its infancy. Where this is the case, learning is not adapted well enough.

This limits pupils' ability to engage in their learning and hampers the progress they make across the curriculum.

Classrooms are calm and purposeful, which helps pupils to focus on their learning. From when they first join, children in the Reception class learn to follow routines and listen carefully to teachers' instructions.

The school gives attendance and punctuality a high priority. It has established strong relationships with parents and carers in order to support its focus on maintaining positive attendance.

The school has established a well-devised programme for pupils' personal development.

Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe, including when near the local waterfront. They participate in village events and raise funds for a range of charities. Pupils learn about diversity and celebrate the many differences that people have.

The school encourages every child to develop the personal characteristics needed to become active members of society.

Staff are happy and proud to work at this school. They appreciate how leaders consider their well-being.

Those responsible for governance have a strong commitment to the role. They know the school well. They engage effectively with external support.

This ensures that they have the skills and knowledge required to hold leaders to account effectively.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The support for pupils with SEND is variable.

Their learning is not always closely matched to their needs. As a result, these pupils do not build their knowledge as well as they could. The school must ensure that learning is adapted to enable all pupils, including those with SEND, to progress as well as possible through the curriculum.