Ilsington Church of England Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Key findings

Ilsington Primary is a good school. It is not outstanding because teaching is not of a consistently high enough quality to ensure that all pupils make outstanding progress. Teaching does not always fully challenge pupils or give them the opportunity to lead their own learning.

Pupils make good progress throughout the school. Close tracking of individuals in the small year groups ensures that pupils achieve well from their starting points. Although the achievement of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs has not been consistently good in the past, these pupils also now make good progress.

Teaching is good across the school. When teaching is at its best, pupils are actively en...gaged in their learning and teachers' strong subject knowledge enables them to provide high levels of challenge to accelerate pupils' progress. Pupils make slower progress when they are less engaged in their learning and have limited opportunities for independent work.

Behaviour in and around the school is good. Pupils display good manners and treat adults and each other with respect. Behaviour for learning is not yet outstanding because pupils do not always have sufficient opportunity to be active learners in class leading their own learning.

Leadership and management are good. The associate headteacher leads teaching well and has made it more consistently good. School performance is managed well and successful action has been taken to raise pupils' achievement.

Information about the school

The school is much smaller than the average-sized primary school. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is well below the national average. The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs supported by school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is higher than average.

There is on-site before-school childcare provision which is managed by the school. The school meets the government's current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils' attainment and progress. Since its last inspection the school has become an academy and joined a Trust with four local schools.

Currently, the headteacher of the local secondary school is the executive headteacher with an associate headteacher having responsibility for the day-to-day leadership of the school. There has been considerable change in the senior leadership of the school over the past three years. A permanent structure is in place for September 2012, with a new executive headteacher shared with a neighbouring primary school, and a full-time head of school.