Long Marton School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Long Marton School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils thrive in this happy, rural school. They arrive each morning ready and eager to learn.

Pupils know that staff care about them. They feel valued and safe in the school's nurturing environment. Older pupils help children in the early years to settle into school life.

Children in the early years flourish as they play and explore alongside their friends.

Pupils are polite and well mannered. They treat each other with thoughtfulness and respect.

Pupils work hard to live up to the high expectations that the school has for their achievement. Most pupils, including tho...se with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), achieve well.

Pupils' wider development is fostered well.

For example, pupils enjoy visits to places of local interest and art exhibitions. Residential trips to different cities help to broaden pupils' horizons. Pupils develop their confidence and resilience through the different sporting events and clubs that they can be part of.

They benefit from the opportunity to challenge themselves further when trying new activities while learning outdoors.

As members of committees, pupils help to make decisions about the life of the school. They demonstrate how resourceful they can be when organising fundraising events for school, for example to purchase books for the new library.

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

The school is determined for all pupils, including those pupils with SEND, to become successful learners. Careful consideration has been given to the design of the school's curriculum to ensure that is suitable for pupils who are taught in mixed-age classes.

In most subjects, the essential knowledge that pupils need to learn has been carefully ordered from the early years to Year 6.

Staff know what pupils will learn and when it will be taught. Staff receive the training that they need to deliver the curriculum effectively. Carefully designed activities enable pupils to practise what they are learning.

This helps pupils to build secure knowledge as they progress through the school. However, in some subjects, the key knowledge that the school wants pupils to learn is not clear. On occasion, this hampers pupils' achievements in these subjects.

Staff frequently check what pupils know and remember. They use this information well to rectify any misconceptions and set out what pupils need to learn next. As pupils' knowledge deepens over time, they confidently apply what they know when they are learning something new.

The school is quick to accurately identify pupils with SEND. The school works closely with different professionals to help meet pupils' needs. Staff have the knowledge that they need to help pupils with SEND to achieve their best.

Pupils with SEND learn the same curriculum as their classmates and access all aspects of school life.

Pupils read widely and often across a range of different genres and subjects. A love of reading is fostered throughout the school.

Pupils talked enthusiastically about their favourite authors and they readily recommend books to their friends. Children in the Nursery class enjoy joining in with familiar stories and rhymes. In the Reception class, children quickly learn the sounds that letters make.

The books that they read match the sounds that they are learning. This helps them to read new and unfamiliar words accurately. Effective support is given to pupils who struggle with reading.

This helps them to catch up quickly. Most children are confident and fluent readers by the end of key stage 1.

All pupils, including those with SEND, benefit from the extensive range of wider opportunities that the school provides.

Pupils take an active part in looking after the local community, for example through environmental projects with the garden club. Trips to different places of worship help pupils to appreciate other faiths and cultures. Visits to the Houses of Parliament, and enterprise challenges with local businesses, help to broaden pupils' ambitions.

Pupils have future aspirations that include working for the environment agency, becoming teachers or running their own businesses.

Pupils enjoy school and most attend well. The school works closely with families and other agencies should pupils' attendance need to improve.

Pupils demonstrate positive attitudes to learning and conduct themselves well around school. This helps them to concentrate and to achieve their best.

Governors are proud to be associated with the school.

They use their expertise well to support and challenge the school for the quality of education that it provides. Staff appreciate the consideration given to their workload and well-being when decisions are made about changes to the school.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In some subjects, the school has not clearly identified the important knowledge that pupils should learn from the early years to Year 6. This makes it difficult for staff to design curriculum activities that focus on the knowledge that pupils should remember. From time to time, some pupils struggle to recall what they have been taught in these subjects.

The school should ensure that, in these subjects, teachers are clear about the essential knowledge that pupils should learn. This is so that teachers can design learning that helps pupils to build their knowledge successfully over time.

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 May 2014.