Gillingham Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a school that requires improvement Leaders have been slow to address weaknesses identified at the last inspection. As a result, the quality of education is still not good enough. Some leaders lack the professional skills and knowledge needed to drive rapid improvement.

Past changes to governance have slowed the rate of improvement. Current governors are well organised, with rigorous procedures for holding leaders to account. Leaders do not make the best use of the school's additional funding for pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities, or disadvantaged pupils.

Too few pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities make strong progr...ess. Leaders do not know enough about the progress of some pupils. As a result, they do not make the best use of time and resources to tackle gaps in pupils' knowledge well enough.

Leaders have introduced a new approach to the curriculum. However, this has not yet been fully evaluated to check how well it is meeting the needs of all. The quality of teaching is variable.

Teachers do not consistently have the highest expectations of pupils, including the most able. Teachers' and other adults' subject knowledge, especially in English, is not good enough. This sometimes prevents them from planning the right next steps for the pupils.

The quality of education in early years has declined since the last inspection. However, the current early years leader has quickly identified what needs to be done to tackle weaknesses. Adults do not enable pupils to be independent enough in their learning.

Pupils are sometimes overly reliant on adults. The school has the following strengths Staff promote an inclusive and supportive ethos. This ensures that pupils' behaviour and conduct are good.

Pastoral care is effective, providing timely social, emotional and behavioural support for pupils. Some effective leadership, including in mathematics, assessment and early years, is securing improvement. The quality of teaching in the resource base, for pupils who have speech, language and communication difficulties, is good.

Information about this school

Gillingham Primary School is larger than the average-sized primary school. The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals is below the national average. The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is above the national average.

The proportion of pupils who have an education, health and care plan is much higher than the national average. The school has a resource base for pupils who have speech, language and communication difficulties. This caters for a maximum of 16 pupils.