Keinton Mandeville Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils love to attend this vibrant and happy school. There is a strong sense of community. Pupils like feeling part of the Keinton Mandeville family.

They reflect the school's values in all that they do. Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the school.

Pupils' behaviour is impeccable.

Staff have high expectations and effective systems, built on mutual trust, for pupils to learn how to be curious and playful but also caring and responsible. Pupils look after each other. This highly inclusive school ensures that all pupils feel cherished.

Pupils quickly learn to become independent, including from the earliest stages in the Reception Year.

...>Pupils feel safe. They say that bullying is not likely to happen.

However, they have confidence that any issues would be resolved quickly. Pupils consistently participate well in lessons. They are keen to share ideas.

All pupils join in and are encouraged to 'have a go', as part of a kind and caring ethos.

Pupils learn well through a strong curriculum. This mostly prepares them well for the next stage of their education.

However, a few subjects are still being developed. In these cases, pupils do learn as much as possible in readiness for the next stage of their education.

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

Leaders, including governors, are ambitious for pupils.

They are determined to get pupils off to a strong start in education. The headteacher, together with other senior leaders, has established a dedicated team. Senior and middle leaders work effectively with governors.

As a result, there is accurate evaluation of the school's strengths and areas to develop further. Leaders make the right decisions to improve the school. Staff feel well supported.

Their workload is well considered. Leaders are described as approachable and caring.

During and since the pandemic, leaders have continued to adapt the curriculum in response to the pupils' needs.

This is working well. There is an established framework to help teachers implement the curriculum well. As a result, teachers are confident in knowing what they are expected to teach, and how.

Essential knowledge is set out clearly with ambitious milestones in every subject. Recent work to improve some subjects, such as history and science, is impressive. Pupils have strong knowledge and deepen this through high-quality learning sequences and activities.

However, a few subjects are not yet at this stage. This means pupils are not yet benefiting from having the most complete body of knowledge in all subjects, in readiness for their next steps. Leaders have appropriate plans in place to tackle these remaining areas, including mathematics.

Reading is at the heart of the curriculum. Pupils have a love of books. This starts in the Reception Year, where the importance of early communication and language development is understood well.

Leaders have ensured that a phonics programme is taught daily. This follows an appropriately ambitious sequence of learning to introduce pupils to the letters and sounds they need to learn. However, there is not a consistent approach to checking what pupils know.

Teachers do not always use the most timely or accurate assessments to identify the next steps for pupils, particularly those who need to catch up. Consequently, some pupils who find reading difficult do not gain ground as well as they might.

Leaders are ambitious for all pupils.

They ensure that there are effective processes and systems to support pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), including those with an education, health and care plan. All pupils are included and encouraged. Individual plans appropriately identify pupils' needs.

As a result, pupils with SEND achieve well socially, emotionally and academically.

Leaders ensure that pupils are tolerant, kind and caring. They have high regard for promoting equality and acceptance throughout the school.

Pupils understand the importance of being proactive members of the school community. For example, they like to be play leaders or part of the school council. They undertake such positions of authority with pride and understanding.

Pupils develop a strong sense of right and wrong. They understand fundamental British values, such as democracy, and how these shape our lives.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

There are strong systems to protect pupils. These include the appropriate staff recruitment checks and child protection training. Staff are vigilant and curious.

They know what they must do and use agreed systems to raise any concerns promptly when necessary. Leaders are tenacious in working with external agencies to keep pupils safe.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The curriculum is mostly ambitious and coherent for pupils.

However, there are a few remaining subjects that are not as strong as they could be. Leaders must ensure that every subject promotes the same high-quality learning so that pupils gain the full range of knowledge needed for the next stage of their education. ? The school has a systematic synthetic phonics programme in place.

However, teachers' assessments are not always as precise as they could be. As a result, some pupils who find reading difficult do not always catch up as quickly as possible. Leaders must ensure that teachers consistently use timely and accurate assessment information to support pupils' early reading.