Freeland Church of England Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

Pupils receive a good education at this lively and friendly school. They are enthusiastic about attending and make positive comments, such as, 'The teachers care for you and you can care for others' and 'You learn different things and they are fun.'

Caring members of staff support pupils in developing a shared set of good values and enable them to enjoy taking part in all the school has to offer. Pupils make an outstanding contribution towards the community. They are extremely proud of their school and take responsibility for various tasks.

For example, they care for the welfare of the school chickens and have an 'Every Chicken Matters' motto for them. Children make a good start to their edu...cation in the Reception class. They gain independence and learn quickly.

In Years 1 to 6, pupils of differing abilities, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make good progress, leading to above-average attainment by the end of Year 6. They make especially good progress in reading and are confident and articulate. Pupils' politeness and good behaviour contribute to their good learning in the overwhelming majority of lessons.

While most teaching is good, occasionally lessons do not provide enough challenge, especially for more-able pupils and, when this happens, their learning slows. Following a whole-school focus on developing assessment, pupils are increasing their understanding of how they can improve their own work. However, more-able pupils in particular are not always expected to make best use of their writing skills when working in subjects across the curriculum.

There are good and mostly accurate procedures for self-evaluation, which support the leaders' planning for improvement. Senior leaders have gathered a wealth of information about provision and pupils' progress. This is not fully utilised by all leaders to help them iron out the remaining slight variations in teaching, learning and pupils' progress.

Good improvements have been made to the curriculum since the previous inspection, making it more exciting and relevant to the pupils. The use of additional practical activities and the outdoors are particularly good features. The greater focus in the Early Years Foundation Stage on learning about the sounds letters make is improving literacy skills.

The school's capacity to improve further is good.

Information about the school

This is a smaller than average-sized primary school. Most pupils are of White British heritage, with other pupils coming from a range of backgrounds.

The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is low. The school has a below-average proportion of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities. These pupils have differing needs, including behavioural, emotional, social and moderate learning difficulties.

An above-average number of pupils join the school other than in the Reception Year and leave before the end of Year 6. The school has received several awards, including Healthy Schools status and the Eco-school Silver Award. The pre-school sharing the site is not led and managed by the school's governing body and did not form part of this inspection.

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