Glenfield Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils at Glenfield Primary School are polite, tolerant and kind. They enjoy extremely positive relationships with caring staff.

Behaviour is exceptional. Lessons are free from distractions. Pupils show exceptionally positive attitudes to learning.

At playtimes, they play together happily. Staff resolve rare incidents of poor behaviour or fallings out quickly and fairly. Pupils trust staff to keep them safe and provide support when they are worried.

The school is inclusive and aspirational. The curriculum is ambitious. Staff adapt the curriculum well to meet the needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

This includes ...a significant number of pupils with EHC plans who attend the SEN unit, known as the Speech and Language Provision. These pupils receive excellent care and support to access the same curriculum as their peers whenever they can.

Pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND, enjoy a wide range of experiences that enrich the curriculum and support their wider development.

These include educational visits and residential trips. Staff provide clubs that match pupils' interests and help to develop sporting and musical talents. Pupils proudly act as reading ambassadors and represent the school council.

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

The school has developed a broad and interesting curriculum. This begins in the early years where children learn the knowledge and skills that they need to be well prepared for key stage 1. Topics in the early years are chosen to meet children's interests and help them to develop an understanding of the world they live in.

In key stages 1 and 2, all subjects cover the national curriculum. Across the different subjects, lessons are linked to themes that promote diversity and help pupils to understand different cultures.

Reading has been prioritised in the school.

Staff use a well-established phonics programme to teach children phonics from the start of the early years and into key stage 1. Most pupils quickly learn to read. Pupils who struggle with reading are identified quickly.

Staff provide regular and effective support to help them to catch up. As pupils progress through the school there are many opportunities to read from a variety of texts, including poetry and non-fiction. All pupils visit the local library to choose books to read.

In most subjects, the curriculum precisely identifies the knowledge that pupils will learn, and when they will learn it. For example, in the core subjects, including science, important knowledge is broken down into small steps of learning. These steps are sequenced so that pupils at every stage can build on what they already know and make connections in their learning.

However, this is not the case in all subjects. In some foundation subjects, the important knowledge is not so clearly defined and sequenced.Staff have good subject knowledge.

They provide pupils with clear explanations. They help pupils to make links across different subjects and provide opportunities to revisit prior learning. In mathematics lessons, staff enrich pupils' learning using models and apparatus.

In reading and writing lessons, consistent routines help pupils to gain fluency. However, in some lessons, activities do not challenge pupils to think deeply or apply what they are learning. On some occasions, in the foundation subjects, lesson activities do not focus sharply enough on the important knowledge that pupils need to learn.

As a result, pupils do not always gain knowledge securely across the curriculum.

In lessons, staff question pupils well to check understanding. They quickly adapt lessons when pupils have misconceptions or need extra support.

Staff know the pupils with SEND well. They know how to support these pupils to achieve as well as their peers.

In most subjects, staff use well-embedded routines for checking how well pupils can remember what they have learned in the longer term.

Where there are gaps in pupils' knowledge, these are addressed. However, these routines are not yet well established in all subjects.

Personal, social, and health education (PSHE) lessons prepare pupils well for their lives ahead of them.

Pupils learn about healthy relationships, how to keep themselves safe and healthy, and how to be citizens of the world.

Routines for good behaviour are well established in the early years. All through the school, pupils follow the rules and enjoy the rewards they get for good behaviour.

One pupil told inspectors, 'Being able to see the rewards system encourages you to do your best because you can see it.' The vast majority of pupils attend school well. The school provides excellent pastoral support for pupils who do not attend as well as they should or who struggle to regulate their own behaviour.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In some lessons, learning activities are not sharply focused on the knowledge that is identified in the curriculum. In some cases, this is because the knowledge that pupils should learn has not been defined clearly enough.

In these lessons, pupils' learning is insecure. They do not always remember what they have learned. The school needs to make sure that the important knowledge that pupils will learn is defined precisely and that lesson activities support pupils to learn and remember that knowledge.

In the foundation subjects, the school has not yet embedded routines for checking how securely pupils have learned the important knowledge identified in the curriculum. Misconceptions and gaps in pupils' knowledge are not always identified and addressed. The school needs to establish routines for checking pupils' learning and ensure that gaps and misconceptions are addressed.

Also at this postcode