Great Corby School and Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school. Children starting in the Nursery generally have skills and abilities that are typical for their age; by the end of Year 6 standards are above average. Pupils make good progress.

Children in the Nursery and Reception class quickly settle to learning and make very rapid progress. Pupils soon become confident in linking letters to sounds and make good headway with their reading. Pupils of all backgrounds and abilities make good progress with reading, writing and mathematics as they move through the school.

Teaching is good. It generally provides pupils with an appropriate range of opportunities for learning in a variety of ways. Pupils are ...usually given effective guidance and support for improvement.

Pupils enjoy school. They behave well in classrooms and about the school. When lessons are interesting, they are keen to learn and make good effort.

They feel safe and know how to take care of themselves. The school is well led and managed. As the school has expanded, and with changes to staffing, the headteacher has given vigorous attention to ensuring that pupils' good achievement and the good quality of teaching have been at least maintained and, in various ways, improved.

Those with a leadership role are ambitious for pupils' academic and personal development. The governing body is thorough in meeting its responsibilities. Governors have high expectations and hold staff to account for the work they do, ensuring that teaching is good and that pupils achieve well.

It is not yet an outstanding school because : Sometimes pupils do not learn quickly enough because they continue with tasks they have already mastered or are losing interest in. Pupils sometimes regard their work as 'finished' without having checked for slips which they are capable of spotting. A minority of pupils have immature handwriting and work is sometimes untidy.

Some marking does not give enough help with spelling and other basic elements of writing, nor does it give enough help with style. Some pupils are not very sure about the levels at which they are working, nor clear about exactly what they should aim to do better in their next piece of work.

Information about this school

This primary school is smaller than average size.

The great majority of pupils are of White British heritage. None is learning to speak English as an additional language. At present, about one pupil in 10 is eligible for the pupil premium, which is less than half the national proportion.

(The pupil premium is additional funding for those pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals, children from service families and those children who are looked after by the local authority.) The proportion of pupils whose learning needs are supported at the level known as school action is below average. The proportion of pupils supported at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is average.

The school meets the government's current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils' attainment and progress in English and mathematics by the end of Year 6. There are four classes: Nursery and Reception, Years 1 and 2, Years 2 and 3, Years 5 and 6. However, pupils in Years 3 to 6 are sometimes split into groups in three rooms, for instance when learning literacy.

The school provides before-school care from 8am and after-school care until 6pm. Great Corby Primary School converted to become an academy school on 20 February 2012. When its predecessor school was last inspected by Ofsted, it was judged to be good.

The school now provides for children from the age of three. The number of children enrolled at the school has risen from 48 to 82 since 2009. The headteacher works part time and in her absence the deputy headteacher is in charge of the school.

The school has close links with a secondary academy. At the time of the inspection, there was temporary staffing in one classroom. One teacher was new to the profession.