Godshill Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are proud to attend their school. They build strong relationships with staff, based on mutual respect. Pupils know that they will be helped if they have any worries.

This means that they feel safe and happy.

Staff expect pupils to behave well. Pupils live up to these expectations.

At breaktimes, they enjoy using the adventure playground, playing football or chatting with their friends. They are kind and considerate to each other. In lessons, pupils concentrate on their learning and work hard.

As a result, they achieve well in most subjects.

Pupils develop their leadership and teamwork skills. Members of the school council are proud to... represent their classmates' views.

They know that they are listened to and that they help to shape aspects of school life, such as the introduction of a school disco and changes to the reward systems. The pupils who are 'equality and rights advocates' recently led an assembly to share important messages from anti-bullying week.

Pupils enjoy their wider opportunities.

They sing together with enthusiasm in their assemblies. The school ensures that pupils learn how to play musical instruments, including the ukelele and ocarina. After-school clubs, such as basketball, dodgeball and drama, are popular and inclusive.

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

The school has strengthened the teaching of reading since the last inspection. All staff are trained in how to teach pupils to read using a phonics-based approach, starting from early years. Pupils show they know their letter sounds when they break down words, and they read with increasing fluency.

Teaching staff receive high-quality support and guidance that enable them to assist pupils well. Any pupils who need extra help with their reading receive it and their progress is carefully checked. Across the curriculum, pupils have many opportunities to read and interrogate texts.

They encounter books which allow them to discuss moral issues and consider the author's intent.

In many subjects, the curriculum has been reviewed and updated to help pupils learn even better. When pupils' achievement in in mathematics declined, the school sought advice from the local authority about how to improve this area.

This has resulted in the creation of a mathematics curriculum which builds sequentially and is taught well. In early years, children encounter number across their environment and during focused teaching. As they move through the school, pupils show they are accumulating the mathematical knowledge and skills they need.

They use their resources appropriately and with confidence.

Across the wider curriculum, some subjects are further along in their development journey than others. For example, in geography, the learning journey is clear from Nursery to Year 6.

This means that pupils use their prior learning well to help them learn new things. They develop a secure understanding of place and location and know the skills they use to be a geographer. In a few subjects, curriculum changes are more recent and therefore less well embedded.

This means that in these subjects, pupils have not always learned the vocabulary and concepts that they should have.

There is high ambition for disadvantaged pupils, including those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Teachers know how to identify pupils' needs and make any necessary adaptations.

The school has robust processes to check how well all pupils are learning. Pupils who need extra help receive it through a range of methods, including preteaching and targeted support.

Teachers have strong subject knowledge.

They model technical and subject-specific vocabulary. For example, pupils explore what pitch, texture and dynamics mean when they listen to pieces of music. In many lessons, teachers use a range of methods to help pupils remember and use their previous learning.

However, there is some inconsistency in this practice across the school. This means that, occasionally, pupils are not building their long-term memory of key knowledge.

The school's personal, social and health education helps pupils to be accepting of diversity and difference.

The 'No Outsiders' programme allows them to explore discrimination and equality through a range of stories. Pupils enjoy participating in local events, such as the Isle of Wight Mardi Gras festival. This gives them a sense of community.

The school celebrates pupils' achievements by linking them to future careers, helping to build their aspirations for the future.

The governing body receives the information it needs to be able to appropriately challenge and support the school. It routinely checks the school's work, including the effectiveness of safeguarding procedures.

Staff feel well supported in terms of managing their workload and the consideration given to their well-being. They appreciate their professional development opportunities and working collaboratively with other schools and the local authority.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The impact of recent curriculum changes is not currently reflected in standards of learning. As a result, pupils sometimes have gaps in their knowledge and skills. The school should ensure that gaps in pupils' learning are addressed promptly, so they achieve as well as they could.

In a few subjects, there is some inconsistency in the way teachers help pupils to recall and build on their prior learning. As a result, pupils do not always use what they have learned before. The school should ensure that opportunities for revisiting prior learning are consistently effective in helping pupils to build their knowledge across their subjects.