Mansfield Primary Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

This school emphasises the importance of building strong relationships with the community. Staff get to know pupils and their families exceptionally well. Pupils are happy here.

They say the staff really care about them and they feel well looked after. Parents appreciate this.

Staff help pupils understand the school's high expectations for behaviour by being continual role models.

Pupils typically behave well. They try their best to live up to the school's '3Rs' of respect, responsibility and resilience. For those pupils who find this difficult, staff provide caring and constructive support.

Many exciting trips bring the curriculum to life and provid...e memorable experiences for pupils. During the inspection, older pupils excitedly departed for a camping trip at a seaside school. Many had never been camping or to the seaside before.

Year 3 pupils visited the Tropical Butterfly House to learn about animals and conservation. Children in the early years recently visited a wildlife park to see exotic animals from books they were reading. All pupils enjoy the forest school, where they look after the chickens and share social time when they toast marshmallows.

This is a very inclusive school, where ambitions are high for every pupil. Current pupils are in receipt of an engaging curriculum, which is helping them to achieve better than what has been reflected in published outcomes. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) do particularly well.

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

The school is committed to making sure pupils learn to read well. They prepare pupils for this journey in the Nursery Year. Staff make sure pupils listen carefully for sounds and say them clearly.

Trained staff teach phonics well. Younger pupils concentrate hard to apply their knowledge in their reading groups. Their books are well matched to the sounds they know.

Ample practice helps them become more fluent readers. Where pupils find it hard to remember or blend sounds, they receive additional expert support. Teachers carefully select books to ignite pupils' love of reading.

Pupils thoroughly enjoy their class novels. They are proud to be recognised for their achievement in the reading assembly. Pupils are excited to 'spin the wheel of names' to find out who will win tokens for the book vending machine.

The school has been working hard to develop a broad and inspiring curriculum. In the early years, there is a strong focus on developing language and communication skills. This focus continues through the school and teachers highlight important words on the 'vocabulary cake' in every classroom.

Putting communication at the heart of the curriculum is having a positive impact on pupils' progress across and within subjects. There was great excitement in the Reception Year when some children discovered a carrot had grown from the seeds they had planted. They explained how they looked after the plants and helped them grow.

They talked about washing their hands and cleaning the carrot so they could eat it.The school has set out the core knowledge they want pupils to learn. Their curriculum plans largely enable teachers to design effective lessons.

Some subjects are still in the earlier stages of development. In these subjects, the plans are not yet precise enough about the knowledge pupils need to acquire, or the exact sequence for learning it. Where this is the case, lessons are less effective, and pupils do not gain the necessary knowledge for future learning.

When teachers have clarity about what pupils should learn, they provide appropriately engaging activities that capture pupils' interest. Teachers identify pupils with SEND swiftly and adapt lessons and activities well for them. This enables these pupils to learn the same ambitious curriculum alongside their peers.

Teachers often use 'sentence stems' to help all pupils explain clearly and deepen their understanding. Sometimes, teachers do not check what pupils think or record in their books thoroughly enough. Teachers miss the opportunity to address the misconceptions that can hinder pupils' learning.

Through the well-considered personal development curriculum, pupils learn about responsibility. Some pupils have opportunity to hold important roles. The school parliament helped design the small parts play area for playtimes.

They also decide what after-school clubs to offer. There are many clubs for pupils to develop their talents. The school encourages pupils to aspire.

Guest speakers introduce them to a range of careers. Each term pupils write their aspirations on their leaf of the 'career tree'.

Pupils' attendance is not as high as it should be.

The school works with parents to find out the underlying reasons. Helpful support is reducing the number of absences.

The school is determined to keep improving.

Staff are eager to take extra responsibility to support this. The school is considerate of their workload and makes sure they have additional time to fulfil their responsibilities. Training activities are well focused on development areas.

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 curriculum does not identify precisely enough the important knowledge and vocabulary that pupils need to know and remember. It does not always make clear the sequence for building knowledge over time.

As a result, lessons do not help pupils to gain a deeper understanding over time. The school needs to identify precisely what pupils need to learn, and when, to ensure that lessons focus sharply on this. In some lessons, staff do not check pupils' understanding as well as they might.

Some work in pupils' books is not checked carefully enough. As a result, staff often do not identify and address pupils' misconceptions and this hinders pupils' learning and progress. The school needs to ensure that staff check pupils' learning more carefully so they systematically identify and address pupils' misconceptions.

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