John Blandy Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

John Blandy Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Strong relationships underpin life at John Blandy.

Leaders know every family within this village school. Staff provide a high level of care to each other, parents and the pupils. Pupils describe their school as a warm, supportive place where everyone is looked after.

A pupil summarised this by saying, 'If you are feeling low, there is always a special person to help you, and this makes me feel really happy. Sometimes all I need is a smile to make me feel better.'

Pupils display the school values of 'belong, believe, brilliance' in all they do.

Pupils are keen... to succeed. They work hard in lessons and value the different learning challenges teachers give them.

Leaders recognise the need to build the wider character of pupils.

Leaders plan a range of additional activities, including pupil leadership roles. Pupils enjoy their added responsibilities and use these to help develop the school community. These roles also support pupils in feeling safe in school.

They describe their school as friendly and say when there are incidents; playground mentors help to resolve them. Bullying is not a problem. Pupils are confident that if there was an incident, staff would swiftly sort it out.

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

Leaders are determined that pupils will develop brilliance across the curriculum. They want all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and disadvantaged pupils to find 'their something special to shine in'. Consequently, pupils receive a broad and balanced curriculum.

Leaders provide valuable support to help staff identify and meet the needs of pupils with SEND. This enables all pupils to learn with their friends in class, regardless of their ability.

Leaders are clear in their intention to ensure pupils are 'flourishing readers'.

Therefore, leaders have placed reading at the heart of the curriculum. Leaders make sure that teachers and other staff are well trained to support pupils in learning to read. All staff consistently apply the agreed phonic strategies to support the development of early reading.

Phonics is taught as soon as the children start school. Pupils are able to use their phonic knowledge independently to read a range of books. Pupils display a love of reading and enjoy selecting books from the library or classroom reading corners to develop their interests.

They read regularly at school and at home and can explain their favourite books. In key stage 2, daily reading helps pupils to develop their fluency and comprehension skills. They talk knowledgably about the books that teachers read to them in class.

Mathematics is carefully sequenced and taught well. Teachers have strong subject knowledge because of the support received from leaders. During lessons, pupils revisit previous knowledge to help them learn new information.

Pupils use this to help them understand how well they are doing. Teachers' skilful use of questioning helps them assess understanding and plan subsequent lessons and activities.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders begun work to re-sequence the curriculum from Reception to Year 6.

This sets out the knowledge and skills that pupils should learn and when they should learn it. Leaders recognise that some of the foundation subjects are not yet fully implemented. This is because some curriculum leaders are new to their roles and are finalising curriculum planning.

As a result, lessons do not always build precisely on prior learning.

Pupils behave very well and the school is calm. Pupils readily support one another either socially or in lessons.

Routines are well established across the school. In Reception, children are able to select their learning activities, either inside or outside, and work independently.

Leaders recognise the impact of COVID-19 on opportunities and have reintroduced a range of curricular-based trips and visits for pupils.

Many pupils have spoken excitedly about these. Pupils in Year 6 were able to use their recent visit to Hill End to describe the life of soldiers in the trenches during World War One. Leaders recognise the importance of keeping pupils connected to the local community.

To enable this to happen, the school hosted a virtual harvest festival. Pupils understand the need to work together to support others in society less fortunate than themselves. Pupils proudly support the school's charity events.

Leaders are thinking ahead and have a clear plan of all the enhancements they would like to offer, including expanding the range of after-school activities.

Staff are proud to work at John Blandy. They value the opportunities to enable them to develop professionally.

Leaders, governors and trustees provide support for staff in maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

There is a strong culture of safeguarding across the school.

Staff receive up-to-date safeguarding training. They know the children well and are vigilant, seeking to spot any change in a pupil's behaviour. Staff use the internal systems to report any concerns to leaders.

Leaders respond swiftly and make referrals to external agencies as needed.

Pupils feel safe and know how to keep themselves safe online and out in the village. Pupils recognise the importance of good mental health.

Governors support leaders well, review documentation and carry out checks.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The school's curriculum is not fully embedded in every subject. This means that pupils are not yet able to build up their knowledge over time.

Leaders must continue to carefully monitor curriculum leaders to ensure the essential knowledge they want pupils to learn is clearly identified and assessed. This will help pupils build on prior knowledge and skills in all subjects.

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

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the section 8 inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the section 8 inspection as a section 5 inspection immediately.

This is the first section 8 inspection since we judged the school to be good on 29 November 2016.

Also at this postcode