Marldon Church of England Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Marldon Church of England Primary School has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils at Marldon Church of England Primary School flourish because they are valued and motivated to learn.

They are encouraged to be self-aware individuals who can confidently speak up for themselves and others. This is because pupils experience a culture of nurture and support alongside high expectations of their behaviour and academic success. Pupils enthuse about their learning across the curriculum.

They talk with excitement about how staff make their learning interesting so that they remember it. T...his results in highly positive attitudes to learning and, consequently, pupils achieve well.

Pupils benefit from the values that the school places at the heart of their education.

Their wider development is prioritised. This prepares them well, socially and emotionally, for the next stage in their education. For example, pupils successfully undertake roles of mental health ambassadors and play leaders.

Younger pupils aspire to do the same. There is a vast array of enrichment experiences that enhance pupils' learning. These include visits, overseas trips, as well as plentiful clubs and opportunities to foster pupils' talents and interests.

Collectively, this enables pupils to accurately recognise their school as somewhere they feel fortunate to be a pupil and want to attend.

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

The school's ambitious curriculum is well designed to deepen pupils' learning across subjects from the early years through to Year 6. The school has well-considered systems in place to ensure that there is strong consistency between classes.

This maintains the high expectations of pupils as they move through each year group. Adding to this is the significant work to develop pupils' writing. The school has put writing at the centre of the curriculum.

Consequently, pupils write often and with a clear purpose. This work starts in the early years. Pupils learn what they need to be effective writers, for example through staff's high-quality interactions and the explicit teaching of ambitious vocabulary in the early years.

This leads to pupils being able to present their views and opinions successfully as they move though the school.

The school has focused on increasing pupils' fundamental skills in reading and mathematics. Pupils apply this learning well.

For example, pupils read and comprehend increasingly complex texts and enjoy doing so. They read with greater accuracy and confidence. Pupils reason about and solve a range of mathematical problems with success.

Pupils get effective additional support in these aspects of their learning if the checks that teachers make identify that this is needed.

Pupils' progress through the curriculum is closely checked by the well-considered systems that the school has in place. The school monitors and evaluates its curriculum regularly.

It uses this to inform curriculum improvement and strengthen the learning already taking place. While the school has accurately addressed areas for improvement, they are not embedded in some subjects and making the desired impact on pupils' learning. As a result, in these subjects, pupils do not remember more over time and recall their learning as well as they could.

Pupils know that the staff are committed to getting the best from them. Relationships between staff and pupils are strong. This starts from the moment children begin in the Reception Year.

As a result, staff know pupils well and are able to identify and meet pupils' additional needs with precision. This is strengthened by the increasing special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) awareness that the school gains from training within the wider federation. Staff benefit from the collaborative expertise of the wider federation.

This develops their knowledge and skills across the curriculum and in how pupils learn most effectively.

The school has responded well to pupils' increasing social and emotional needs, which can pose barriers to learning. The rich wider development offer is enhanced further by a focus on pupils' mental health and well-being.

While poor behaviour is rare, pupils are clear about the school's approach which reminds them and supports them in how to meet the high expectations of their behaviour. They rightly see it makes a difference over time and that it helps prepare them for secondary school. Children in the Reception Year quickly learn the routines and rules they need to be ready for learning.

Pupils learn about keeping themselves safe. Their knowledge about online safety is particularly strong. They gain a secure understanding of how people can be different and why some of these differences are protected by law.

This is underpinned by pupils' embodiment of the school and fundamental British values which teach them the importance of tolerance and respect. Pupils demonstrate this regularly through the care, support and encouragement that they show each other.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The recent improvements to some subjects in the curriculum, in response to the school's planned monitoring and evaluation, are not fully embedded. This means that, at times, the curriculum is not as effective as it could be and pupils do not learn as well as they could. The school should work to embed the recent developments to its curriculum so that pupils secure new learning, recall it more readily and make relevant links.

Background

Until September 2024, on a graded (section 5) inspection we gave schools an overall effectiveness grade, in addition to the key and provision judgements. Overall effectiveness grades given before September 2024 will continue to be visible on school inspection reports and on Ofsted's website. From September 2024 graded inspections will not include an overall effectiveness grade.

This school was, before September 2024, judged to be good for its overall effectiveness.

We have now inspected the school to determine whether it has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at that previous inspection. 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's work has improved significantly or that it may not be as strong as it was at the last inspection, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection. A graded inspection 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 the school to be good for overall effectiveness in January 2019.

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