Glusburn Community Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy to learn at Glusburn Community Primary School. They are proud of its values of being 'ready, respectful and safe'. These priorities are tangible throughout the school.

Pupils come to school eagerly and they are attentive in lessons. Pupils know about respect for themselves and others. As a result, the school is calm, and pupils are polite and well behaved.

Pupils say that they can talk to a trusted adult when they have worries. They know that repeated unkind behaviour is classed as bullying. Pupils are confident that if bullying were to happen, then staff will sort it out.

Leaders have high expectations of all pupils. They want pupils to enjo...y their learning, to be ready for their next steps and to contribute actively to their community. Leaders use local history and the community to enrich what pupils learn in each subject.

Pupils are meaningfully engaged in leadership responsibilities. These include opportunities to be part of the 'Glusburn ambassadors', the enterprise team and the eco-team.

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

Reading is a priority; the school promotes a love of reading well.

Pupils enjoy listening to teachers read from the school's carefully considered reading spine. This exposes children to high-quality, thought-provoking texts. From the earliest moments in school, children are taught to crack the phonics code so that they can read with fluency.

Teachers deliver the phonics curriculum consistently, and as a result, children develop solid skills that they use with confidence. Leaders ensure that there is extra support for pupils who might be in danger of falling behind with their learning. This extra support means that the majority of pupils achieve well in reading.

Leaders have designed a curriculum that is ambitious for all pupils, from early years to Year 6. Leaders have thought about the key knowledge that they want pupils to know and remember at each stage of their education and in each subject area. Leaders have structured learning across the curriculum with care and precision.

They ensure that pupils revisit and build up their knowledge step by step over time. For example, pupils build on their knowledge of sewing and textiles year by year. They develop their needlework skills well.

Leaders have recently introduced interesting opportunities at the end of each unit, when pupils are invited to share their learning. For instance, at the end of the history unit about Sir John Horsfall, Year 5 pupils consider the impact that he had on their local community during the Victorian era. Leaders know that these opportunities are vital ways of checking what pupils can do and what they can remember.

Leaders know that these strategies are in their infancy and are not common to all subjects in the wider curriculum.Children get off to a good start in the school's foundation stage. Leaders have recently refined their curriculum to build children's skills and knowledge progressively.

As a result, children have the opportunity to experience an interesting environment. Children benefit from high-quality, teacher-led input that rapidly develops their communication and language and early reading skills. This sets them up well for Year 1 and the rest of their education.

However, leaders' intentions are, at times, not consistently delivered by the whole team. Leaders know this and are implementing a robust programme of coaching and mentoring.

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and other pupils with additional needs are fully included in school life.

Pupils with SEND are supported in lessons to ensure that they are successful. Leaders are ambitious for pupils with SEND to access the same curriculum as their peers.

Staff and pupils understand leaders' new behaviour policy.

Pupils said that teachers apply it fairly. This policy focuses on inner reflection and pupils learning from their mistakes. There is a calm atmosphere in classrooms, and pupils move around school with respect.

Equally, they enjoy their free time, eagerly joining one another in fun and games.

Leaders offer a broad range of after-school activities. Staff track participation to make sure that pupils access a range of activities.

Pupils can develop their leadership skills in various ways, such as by organising a mental health, well-being and diversity day as part of the Rights Respecting School team. Pupils contribute to the local community, for example by running a Macmillan Cancer Support coffee morning.

Governors have high ambitions for the school.

They are well organised, committed and knowledgeable. They monitor school development and challenge leaders well. In particular, they check on the quality of the school's work carefully.

They understand the wants and needs of the community and are proactive in their mission.

Staff are happy and proud to work at this school, stating that recent changes have delivered clear improvement. They say that leaders are mindful of their workload and well-being.

Parents and carers are very positive about the school.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders have created a strong culture of safeguarding in school.

This is worthy of sharing. They ensure that teachers receive regular training and that they follow the school's safeguarding procedures. Teachers know to report any concerns they have, no matter how small.

Leaders are never complacent about safeguarding and they have their systems externally audited. Leaders ensure that all statutory pre-employment vetting checks are carried out when recruiting new staff.

When leaders identify pupils who may need support, they are quick to contact and act on advice from external agencies.

They support these pupils and families in school and maintain detailed records of concerns.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Curricular plans in early years are not always sufficiently refined nor communicated. This means that leaders' well-considered intentions are sometimes not clearly identified for all members of staff to implement.

Leaders should make these explicit to ensure that all practitioners follow these closely and are clear about the granular intentions of the early years curriculum. ? Teaching is not consistently nor systematically well informed by what pupils reveal they know and can remember. Leaders should ensure that the evidence that teachers collect from checking what pupils understand in lessons is used, consistently across all subjects, to plan the next steps of teaching both in the short- and long term.

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