Forest of Galtres Anglican/Methodist Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school. The experienced headteacher, supported by staff and the governing body, sets a clear direction for the school's work and is driving forward school improvement.

Teaching is good and there is a determined drive to make it better. The best teaching sees learning moving on rapidly because : work is challenging for pupils of all abilities. Pupils play their part in the successes of the school through their good, and sometimes outstanding, behaviour and readiness to learn.

Subject leaders know what works well and what needs doing. The successful promotion of pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is at the heart of the schoo...l's work. Most parents hold the school in high regard.

Most pupils make good progress from their broadly average starting points. Standards in reading, writing and mathematics have been above the national average for four of the last five years. The school provides a rich and varied curriculum for its pupils.

The strong governing body increasingly holds the school to account and leads its direction. It is not yet an outstanding school because : A small amount of teaching, mostly in Key Stage 2, requires improvement and there are too few outstanding lessons to secure outstanding progress. Standards in English, and especially in mathematics, were lower in the 2012 national tests than in previous years.

The progress of this year group as they moved through school was not as good as usually seen in school. The regular monitoring of teaching does not focus sharply enough on how pupils of different abilities learn. Some lessons do not enable all pupils, especially the more able, to make best possible progress.

The quality of the lessons that help pupils to link letters to the sounds they make (phonics) is too variable to ensure pupils always make good progress.

Information about this school

Forest of Galtres Anglican/Methodist Primary School is a smaller than the average sized primary school. Fewer pupils than in other primary schools join or leave at times other than the usual times.

The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for the pupil premium (additional funding provided for children in local authority care, those from service families and those known to be eligible for free school meals) is well below average. The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups is well below what is typical nationally and no pupil is at an early stage of learning English as an additional language. The proportion of pupils supported at school action is below average.

The proportion of pupils supported at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is broadly average. The school meets the government's current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils' attainment and progress. More than half the pupils arrive by coach from neighbouring villages.