Manor Farm Junior School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Relationships between pupils are typically kind and caring. Staff look after pupils well and keep them safe. Pupils appreciate and respect the adults that they work with.

If pupils have any worries, they know to tell a member of staff. Pupils rightly trust staff to sort out any problems quickly. Pupils enjoy school and socialise happily at breaktimes and lunchtimes.

The school sets high expectations for pupils' attendance and the majority of pupils come to school very regularly.

The school is ambitious for pupils' learning across the curriculum. However, although pupils' results in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of key stage 2 in 2024 were about ...average overall, pupils' achievement varies across the school.

The approaches that staff use in lessons are not consistently effective enough. Additionally, the school's support for weaker readers and pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is not as strong as it should be.

The breadth and quality of opportunities for pupils' personal growth are good.

Pupils experience a wide range of enriching activities. Underpinned by the school's values, pupils have a strong understanding of the world around them. They learn to respect and value people with different backgrounds, cultures and beliefs.

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

Although some pupils thrive academically, pupils' achievement across the curriculum is not securely strong. Teachers' expectations vary between subjects and year groups. They do not make sure that pupils are engaged fully in what they are learning.

Sometimes, pupils struggle to complete tasks. Teachers' checks on pupils' learning do not gauge effectively enough how well pupils have learned new ideas, concepts or skills. The school has a broad, ambitious curriculum in place, providing a solid foundation for further improvements.

Pupils are enthusiastic readers. They encounter a range of stimulating texts in class and borrow books regularly from the school's library. While specific provision is in place to support weaker readers, this is not effective enough.

Books that the school gives these pupils to develop their fluency and confidence are not matched precisely enough to their reading ability. They are not routinely given the support that they need to access class texts fully.

Pupils with SEND with the greatest challenges are supported well and make good progress through the curriculum.

However, other pupils with SEND do not get the help that they require to achieve well. Their social and emotional needs are identified and met more effectively than their academic needs. The school does not provide teachers with the specific guidance necessary to support pupils consistently effectively.

Pupils' personal development is a strength of the school. They understand important social, moral and cultural aspects of life in modern Britain. Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe online and how to form healthy, fruitful relationships.

They debate different issues and topics well. Pupils benefit from opportunities that broaden their horizons and aspirations. They develop leadership skills, including by being members of the school's 'pupil parliament'.

Pupils respect the school's rules and are considerate. Lessons are calm. The school supports pupils with specific behaviour needs effectively.

Leaders make sure that staff have the necessary knowledge to manage pupils' behaviour. The school takes the right actions swiftly if any pupil's attendance dips.

The trust has an accurate view of the school's priorities through a more forensic approach to understanding the school's effectiveness over the last year.

Local governors, trustees and executive leaders all review the school's progress but not in a clearly defined, coherent way. Therefore, the trust does not hold the school to account for improvements fully effectively.

Staff appreciate how leaders manage workload, which helps staff concentrate on their work with pupils.

Staff value the range of training and support that the school provides, although this is not focused enough on making sure approaches in the classroom are consistently effective. The school engages well with parents and carers overall but those of children with SEND generally have less positive views of the school's work.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The approaches teachers use in lessons are not consistently effective. Pupils do not achieve as well as they should because they are not fully engaged and teachers' expectations vary. The school should support teachers to use strategies that enable pupils to learn new knowledge securely.

• Lessons are not adapted well enough to meet the academic needs of pupils with SEND. They do not make strong progress through the curriculum. The school should provide staff with the necessary information so that they can support pupils with SEND effectively in lessons.

• The ways in which the school supports weaker readers are not effective enough. These pupils' fluency, accuracy and confidence in reading do not develop as strongly as they should. The school must make sure that books are matched closely to pupils' phonics knowledge and that they are supported to access texts in class more effectively.

• While those responsible for governance and executive leaders within the trust review the school's progress, there is no cohesive or specific process which aligns the work of different layers of governance and leadership. This means that the school is not held to account as effectively as it could be for the pace and impact of improvements. The trust should develop and implement a strategy that clearly sets out who is responsible for evaluating what, when and how.

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