Gossops Green Primary

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

The principal and other leaders have transformed Gossops Green Primary School. Leaders have very high ambition for pupils. School leaders make excellent working relationships with parents and the local community.

Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the school and what it provides for their children. This is especially the case in early years foundation stage.

This school has a family atmosphere.

Staff know their pupils well and look after them carefully. Pupils say that they are safe at school and their parents agree.

Pupils are happy to learn.

They thrive in lessons because teachers plan the curriculum carefully and spark pupils' inte...rest. They support pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) particularly well. All staff work hard to provide pupils with exactly the right amount of support and challenge.

Consequently, pupils' achievement is rising.

The vast majority of pupils behave well and are polite. Leaders provide specialised help to make sure that pupils are supported well with their behaviour, if necessary.

Leaders make sure that pupils treat each other with kindness and respect. Pupils say that bullying is very rare.

This is a school that welcomes every child wholeheartedly.

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

Trustees and governors have ensured that leaders improved the education on offer to pupils rapidly and securely. Consequently, pupils achieve well across the school. Leaders have shared successfully their vision for a first-rate curriculum.

While appropriate curriculum plans for each subject exist, work is underway to improve them to include much more information. Teachers are using these new plans successfully to deepen pupils' knowledge and skills. Teachers find out what pupils know already and plan activities which carefully build up their knowledge further.

For example, teachers ensure that pupils in Year 4 talk about Rome and the country of Italy before starting a history topic about Romans. Staff widen pupils' experiences by taking them on visits and inviting experts in to the school. Teachers make learning exciting which helps pupils remember what they have been taught.

Leaders provide staff with excellent training sharply focused to improve pupils' knowledge and skills. Staff have honed their teaching skills with much enthusiasm. The principal has reduced teachers' workload significantly.

Staff enjoy working at the school and feel energised.

Leaders make sure that the teaching of reading is at the heart of the school's work.Pupils are eager to read.

Teachers are experts in the teaching of early reading. Staff help pupils to match letters to sounds very effectively. Pupils move on quickly to read sentences and paragraphs with fluency and understanding.

They choose books to read at school and home that match their reading levels. Staff support pupils that fall behind so that they catch up quickly.

Staff adapt the curriculum well to support pupils of all abilities.

Teachers and teaching assistants find out what help is needed for pupils with SEND. They give extra support so that any difficulty with learning is reduced for pupils who may be struggling.

Early years education is a particular strength in this school.

Adults already know children very well despite it being early in the term. Children settle in remarkably quickly and get off to a flying start. Teachers and other adults ensure that the environment and learning activities promote intense interest across a wide range of subjects.

During the inspection children were buzzing with excitement and totally engrossed in their learning. Teachers watch children carefully and ask questions to make them think deeply. Children make decisions for themselves and carry out tasks independently right from the start.

Because staff are highly skilled, they prepare children very well for transition into Year 1. Parents are glowing in their praise for Reception Year and say that their children flourish in the setting.

Pupils' attendance is improving.

While leaders have worked hard to ensure that most pupils attend school regularly, there are still a small number of pupils who miss too many days at school.

Pupils enjoy their time at school. Pupils develop a sense of responsibility and cooperation.

The school is calm and purposeful. Pupils behave well in lessons and around the school.

The curriculum develops pupils' empathy well so they understand how to live in a harmonious community.

For example, when key stage 2 pupils learned about slaves, pupils expressed their view that slavery is wrong. Staff use assemblies to give key messages, such as the importance of working in a team.

Pupils' interests and skills are developed well though opportunities to attend various extra-curricular activities, such as music and sports.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Safeguarding pupils is taken very seriously by staff at the school. Leaders make sure that staff are well trained so that they are vigilant at identifying pupils at risk of being harmed.

They have strong reporting and recording systems of safeguarding matters. Leaders' work with other agencies and parents is exemplary.

Leaders have ensured that staff have a firm understanding of the dangers of radicalisation and extremism.

Staff make sure that pupils understand how to keep safe when online.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

Leaders have developed teachers' understanding well about how long- and medium-term curriculum plans support pupils' learning. Leaders have supplemented existing plans effectively in nearly all subjects.

More work is still to do in computing, music and religious education. Leaders should ensure that the last remaining areas of the curriculum to be enhanced are planned and implemented as well as the rest. .

Leaders have improved pupils' attendance recently. However, pupils' attendance remains below the national average for primary schools with similar levels of deprivation. Leaders should continue their strong work to ensure that levels of attendance, especially for pupils who are disadvantaged, are improved further.

Also at this postcode