Longton Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils feel privileged to be part of their school community.

They respond well to the many high-quality opportunities and positions of responsibility on offer to them. For example, Year 5 pupils support Reception class 'buddies' diligently. They enjoy helping children in the early years to practise their reading and quickly settle into school routines.

Pupils take an active part in the local community. This helps them to understand how they can make a positive contribution to society. Pupils recognise that embracing new challenges helps them to develop character.

They are rightly proud of their many achievements in the 'Longton Primary School Plus' programme,... which introduces pupils to new experiences, such as leading church services. They wear their armbands for this with pride.

The school is a calm and welcoming place.

Pupils behave well during lessons and while moving round the school. They play and chat with each other happily at social times. Pupils develop positive relationships with each other and with staff.

The school expects all pupils to succeed academically. Pupils strive to do their best and typically achieve well. They benefit from the support of skilled staff.

This is particularly true for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

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

The school provides an ambitious and well-organised curriculum for pupils. Teachers understand the order that pupils need to learn new information as they progress from the Reception class to Year 6.

This clarity supports teachers in their workload and enables them to focus on ensuring that all pupils access the curriculum as well as they can. Most pupils achieve well in reading and mathematics. However, at times, their achievement in some other subjects is less secure.

The school makes sure that staff have a clear understanding of pupils' differing needs, including SEND. Staff adapt their approaches, where needed, to ensure that any barriers to learning that pupils face are minimised. Pupils with SEND achieve well as a result.

Teachers regularly check that pupils can recall key information. However, at times, and especially in subjects other than reading and mathematics, teachers do not probe sufficiently to find out how secure pupils' understanding is before introducing new information. This means that, occasionally, pupils' understanding is not as deep as it could be.

Moreover, the school's current systems for checking the quality of education do not identify well enough when some subjects in the wider curriculum need adapting to ensure that pupils secure and deepen their knowledge.

Reading is at the heart of the curriculum. Teachers make effective use of the high-quality books and texts that the school provides to explore a wide range of literature.

Pupils enjoy times allocated to reading in class. Staff are adept at supporting pupils in developing secure reading knowledge.All teachers are trained in using the school's phonics programme to teach pupils how to read.

This begins in the early years. Here, children are keen to apply their new phonics knowledge to reading and writing activities. Most pupils have a secure understanding of how to use phonics to read unfamiliar words by the end of Year 1.

Staff use the school's phonics programme to support the small number of older pupils who find reading more difficult to develop their fluency and accuracy. The school's oversight of this is variable. Some of these pupils make greater strides in their reading than others.

Most pupils focus well during lessons and play considerately at breaktimes. However, the school does not check that agreed procedures that underpin its behaviour policy are routinely followed by all staff. This means that, occasionally, some pupils do not receive the guidance that they need to maintain the high standards of behaviour and positive attitudes that the school expects.

Pupils benefit from a wide range of carefully considered, high-quality activities that support their personal development. For example, pupils from the 'head's team' meet with governors regularly to give their insight about what it means to be a pupil at the school. Pupils selected for roles like these appreciate the value of earning such a position of responsibility.

They recognise how these experiences help to prepare them for the world of work when they are older.

There are strong, professional relationships between the governing body and the school. Staff value the support that they receive from governors.

Governors access a wide range of information related to the school's performance. However, at times, leaders at all levels do not identify as well as they might areas that could be improved at the school. This is because they are too easily assured that pupils are learning as well as they can or that agreed procedures are being followed as expected.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The school does not ensure that pupils' knowledge is developed as well in some foundation subjects as it is in reading and mathematics. At times, the knowledge that pupils develop lacks depth.

Consequently, they do not build up their knowledge across the curriculum as well as they could. The school should make sure that pupils build up their knowledge more evenly across the curriculum. ? The school does not delve deeply enough at times into how effectively it is performing in supporting pupils to achieve as well as they can.

This includes the checks on how well pupils are learning the intended curriculum or if agreed protocols are successfully implemented. This means that the school does not identify as well as it could what is working well and what could be improved. The school should ensure that it has a clear and accurate understanding of where it most needs to focus its support for staff and pupils.

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