Langdale Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils and staff are exceptionally proud to be 'part' of Langdale Primary School.

Pride, ambition, resilience and togetherness shine through all that happens in the school. Parents and carers add their voice to this love of, and pride in, the school. They rightly say that staff go above and beyond to help every child thrive.

Pupils feel valued and listened to. They meet the high expectations that leaders and staff set for them. An aura of calm and purpose helps pupils to champion learning and achieve well.

Pupils take on a range of responsibilities with a mature attitude. They are grateful for the many, varied opportunities that they are given.

Pupil...s, from the very youngest two-year-olds to those who are about to move to secondary school, show interest in and respect for each other and visitors to the school.

They do not see difference; they see an individual. They do not see difficulty because 'friends and teachers help us'.

From wood to water and culture to careers, pupils develop understanding and appreciation across a range of matters.

Whether this is being responsible for the environment, learning to swim, speaking different languages or learning what doors may open to the future, pupils seize each activity with open arms.

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

Leaders in all their guises are dedicated to ensuring all pupils achieve to the very best of their ability. In the recent past, there were a few aspects of pupils' progress in reading and mathematics, at the end of key stage 2, that were not as strong as they should have been.

However, this is no longer the case. Pupils across every year group are achieving well. The trust and the school have worked in tandem, with determination and success, to address the circumstances, including mobility and additional needs, which resulted in a dip in some aspects of a few subjects.

This strong and united leadership is instrumental in establishing a curriculum that sits around key concepts for each subject. Staff know these and use them well to deliver lessons. Pupils also know these and use them effectively to remember and recall their learning.

Sharing conversations with pupils is like turning the pages of a book as they reveal their learning to you. Nothing is out of bounds. The circulatory system, the solar system and the Roman bathing system are all discussed to a depth and detail that is impressive.

Attention to detail is the hallmark of this school. Swift identification of additional needs, coupled with targeted, bespoke and expert support help every pupil to be part of a learning community. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) achieve equally as well as their peers.

Feeling success as an individual and as a learner begins in the early years. Patience, perseverance and practice are seen in both the staff and the children. The two-year-olds learn to be 'little learners'.

They build, climb, slide and hide in a playful manner. The three- and four-year-olds build on these learning habits. They develop control of their words, their actions and their mark-making.

You could easily follow one of their maps to the beach and note the trees, the animals and the people as you went. By the time they reach Reception, children recognise sounds, and read and write words and sentences. They count their pennies to buy an ice cream and can get themselves changed for swimming with minimal help.

Children leave the early years more than ready for the learning and challenges ahead in Year 1.

Leaders say the early years is where the magic of Langdale begins. They are right.

Subject leaders know what the learning of the youngest children looks and sounds like for their curriculum area. They keep a close eye on their subject across the year groups. The regular 'retrieve and review' strategy helps pupils to remember their learning.

However, leaders do not always use what they know from their monitoring well enough. This means that there are times when pupils' learning could have been deepened further but was not.

Every year group is ready to face what comes next.

Whether this is taking on additional responsibilities or using what they have learned to extend their learning, pupils are highly motivated. They see the importance of reading across all areas of their learning. The youngest children get a great start to developing a love of books.

Sharing stories and singing rhymes are a regular part of every day. This moves quickly into learning the letters and sounds that build words and sentences. By the end of Year 1, nearly all pupils are reading fluently.

For the very few who are not, rapid support is wrapped around them with success. Older pupils continue to enjoy the sharing of a story, sometimes on their own or in the company of a friend or their teacher. They say, 'Reading is important for jobs, for life, but also to relax into a world of imagination.'



Deepening imagination and broadening experiences are something the school does exceptionally well. Learning to control moveable construction models, designing and creating Jamaican burgers or dancing in a range of different styles are just a few of the many offerings.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• On occasions, the school does not use information from subject monitoring well enough. This means that the school does not consistently know the full impact of the curriculum across subjects. The school should ensure that approaches to monitoring are further developed so that any required adaptations to the curriculum are identified and made so that all pupils are challenged and able to fully show what they know.