Malmesbury Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Malmesbury Primary School continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Malmesbury is a happy and harmonious school. There are strong, professional relationships throughout the school. Adults set high expectations through the delivery of an ambitious and interesting curriculum.

Pupils talk positively about the rewards and praise they receive from staff for their hard work, for their achievement and for making positive behaviour choices.

Pupils' conduct is excellent in and around school. Pupils display consistently high levels of self-control.

They are exceedingly respectful of each other and of staff. They value diversity and difference. Pu...pils readily offer support to their peers to help them in their work and play.

Adults deal swiftly with the rare occurrence of any bullying.

Leaders have designed an exciting curriculum for all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Pupils, including those with SEND, achieve well across a range of subjects.

Pupils have access to a wide and rich set of experiences, which allow them to develop their interests, talents and character. Pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education. This includes children in the early years.

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

Leaders have created an aspirational curriculum that covers all the national curriculum subjects. Most subjects are planned to ensure that pupils learn the important concepts before moving on to more complex work. However, curriculum thinking in a few subjects is not as securely thought through to support teaching.

Leaders have ensured that reading is at the heart of the curriculum. In the Reception class, children learn phonics successfully from the start. This continues into Year 1.

Leaders have ensured that all staff benefit from regular phonics training. This has equipped them to deliver the programme with confidence. Staff ensure that books are matched well to the sounds that pupils and children have learned.

Pupils who struggle with reading receive appropriate support from staff to help them to catch up quickly. As a result, pupils learn to read fluently and confidently by the end of Year 2. Leaders promote initiatives and challenges that encourage more pupils to read often for pleasure.

Pupils said that they appreciate reading books, particularly where authors have 'put their heart and soul' into creating interesting characters.

Curriculum planning typically builds from the early years upwards. For example, children in mathematics wrote numbers confidently when adding one-digit numbers together.

Pupils said their teachers make mathematics learning fun. They said that recap and recall in lessons help knowledge to 'stick'. Pupils write clear explanations when reflecting on their work.

They take great pride in the way their work is presented. They link their learning with other subjects, for example using graphs when measuring how tall plants grow and statistics when studying population growth in geography.

Provision for pupils with SEND is consistently strong.

Well-trained staff skilfully support pupils during lessons while encouraging a high level of independence. As a result, pupils with SEND do well.

Leaders plan exciting opportunities to widen pupils' experiences.

Pupils take part in regular school outings, for example to the Tower of London and the Royal Opera House. Pupils with SEND enjoy taking part in a range of borough-wide sporting activities. Leaders encourage pupils to have high aspirations for the future.

For example, pupils know that achieving well can give them more career options, including in criminology, law or politics.

Staff morale is high. Staff said that recent changes to the school's marking approach has reduced workload.

Leaders ensure that staff feel valued and, as a result, all staff work well together. The governing body has a knowledgeable and accurate understanding of the quality of education that pupils receive here. The governing body provides leaders with appropriate challenge and support.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders have ensured that staff are well trained in safeguarding and receive regular updates. Staff understand that safeguarding is everyone's responsibility.

They are vigilant to the signs that may indicate that a pupil is at risk from harm. Leaders have ensured that there are clear processes in place to report any concerns. Leaders follow up any safeguarding issues swiftly, and they are relentless in securing help with outside agencies for pupils and families who may need it.

Pupils are encouraged to keep themselves safe. They understand the potential dangers of being online.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Curriculum thinking in a few foundation subjects is not as thought through as it is in others.

This means teachers may lack some subject guidance to deliver these subjects as well as they do the core subjects. The school should ensure that all subjects reflect the high standards seen in the rest of the curriculum.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 March 2014.