Great Tey Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Great Tey Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy attending this welcoming school and do so regularly.

Pupils live and breathe the school's values through their daily actions. Responsibility is especially important to pupils. Members of the 'eco-refill group' rise to the challenge of running the newly created eco-shop.

The local community is encouraged to use the shop. This helps pupils to understand the importance of respecting and looking after the world around them.

Children learn important routines as soon as they start.

They quickly develop the independen...ce and concentration they need to learn well. Pupils want to achieve. They work hard in their lessons to reach the school's high expectations.

Lunchtime is an enjoyable time of the school day for pupils of all ages to come together as one. Older pupils enjoy helping younger children to play games on the playground or school field.

Pupils benefit from the many opportunities the school has carefully designed for them outside their lessons.

They can, and do, attend many different clubs. These provide new experiences for pupils. They have various chances to represent the school.

Pupils are proud to sing in the choir at The Royal Albert Hall or play for the school football team, for example.

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

The school has identified the important knowledge pupils will learn from Reception to Year 6. They have set this knowledge out to meet the needs of the mixed-age classes.

Pupils have opportunities to build on what they already know and can do. For example, in Reception, children secure their understanding of important number facts through being 'doubling detectives'. This helps them to access more complex learning as they move into Year 1 and beyond.

The school ensures teachers have the subject knowledge they need to teach the curriculum well. Typically, teachers present information clearly. Teachers use assessment to check pupils' learning.

In some places they do this with precision. For example, in reading, teachers identify specific gaps pupils have in the sounds they know and can read. This helps teachers to know when to revisit content and when to introduce new learning.

In some instances, the way teachers check pupils' understanding is less precise. When this happens, it is hard for teachers to know whether to revisit learning or introduce new knowledge.

Reading is a priority across the school.

In Reception, staff enthusiastically read a range of stories to children. This helps to instil a love of reading and stories that stays with pupils as they move through the school. The newly created 'key reading texts' introduce pupils to a wide range of literature.

Pupils especially enjoy listening to their teachers read new authors and different genres to them. Pupils who need help with reading get effective support. They therefore become more confident and fluent.

The school provides effective support for the high proportion of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Newly re-designed support plans identify, with precision, the specific strategies pupils with SEND require to access their learning. Staff use these plans well.

They help pupils with SEND to learn well.

Pupils behave well throughout the school day. They show kindness and compassion towards each other and adults.

They also show high levels of respect. The school ensures pupils learn about, and understand, differences between cultures and religions. The personal, social, health and economic curriculum helps pupils to learn about different relationships.

Through this curriculum, pupils also learn how to keep themselves safe, including when they are online. Pupils benefit from the way the school uses trips and visitors to develop what they learn in lessons. For example, a recent graffiti artist inspired pupils to create their own artwork.

The way the school monitors the effectiveness of the curriculum has changed over the years. This is in part due to the small size of the school and the growth it has gone through. The way the school checks how well pupils are learning the intended curriculum has helped them to make some improvements.

For example, recently, the school has redesigned the mathematics curriculum. In some areas the monitoring of the effectiveness of the curriculum lacks precision. This means that leaders do not have as secure an understanding of where they need to make improvements as they might.

Governors know the school. They understand what it does well. They ensure that staff have support to manage their workload and wellbeing.

Staff enjoy being members of the school community and are proud to work here.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Sometimes, assessment does not identify with precision how well pupils are retaining important knowledge.

When this happens, it makes it hard for teachers to know when to revisit or introduce new learning. The school should ensure teachers use assessment effectively to identify how well pupils are retaining important knowledge to inform future teaching. ? The school is currently developing leadership of the curriculum.

Precise monitoring of the curriculum is not fully embedded. The school does not have as secure an understanding of how well pupils are learning in some subjects compared to others. This means they do not have as full a picture of where to make improvements.

The school should ensure they check how well pupils are learning across subjects. This is so they better understand where they might need to make necessary improvements.

Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good.

This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

This is the second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in March 2014.