Mayfield Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy at school. They develop strong friendships and enjoy spending time with each other.

Pupils said that staff make learning fun and that they help them if they find anything difficult.

Pupils value the wide range of opportunities that the school provides for them. These include a variety of clubs and roles of responsibilities that help pupils to develop new skills and to build their self-confidence.

For example, pupils learn how to work as part of a team through business challenges. Older pupils show younger pupils how to become a 'Mayfield Marvel'.

Children in the early years achieve well.

They quickly learn that cooperation a...nd consideration enable everyone to enjoy their learning and play. These positive attitudes provide a firm foundation for pupils' behaviour as they progress through the school.

Pupils are polite and respectful.

Those who find it difficult to manage their own behaviour benefit from the support of skilled staff. The school is a calm and welcoming place as a result.

The school expects pupils to achieve well.

To this end, the school has devised an ambitious curriculum. However, some pupils do not achieve as well as they should. This is because the delivery of the curriculum is not as effective as it could be.

Added to this, the school has not fully identified or addressed some of the barriers to pupils' learning.

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

Since the time of the previous inspection, the school has focused on ensuring that pupils are better prepared for secondary school by the end of Year 6. For example, the school has been successful in making sure that pupils attend school more regularly than they did in the past.

The number of pupils who are persistently absent from school has reduced considerably in recent years.

Those responsible for governance know the school and the community that it serves well. They support staff effectively in their work.

There is a tangible sense of common purpose. However, some pupils do not achieve as well as the school hopes.

The school has redesigned its curriculum in recent years to ensure that it is ambitious and that pupils are ready for the next stages of their education.

Teachers are clear what pupils are expected to learn as they progress from the Nursery Year to Year 6.

Teachers typically deliver the agreed curriculum with fidelity. However, there are inconsistencies in how well teachers adapt the delivery of the curriculum to meet individual pupils' needs, including some pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

The school does not ensure that teachers check carefully enough that pupils' knowledge is secure before moving on to something new. Furthermore, there is inconsistency in how well teachers support pupils to rehearse and embed their learning. Despite this being customary practice in the early years, the school does not ensure that it continues as pupils move into Year 1.

Consequently, some pupils have weaknesses or undetected gaps in their knowledge as they progress through the school, including in reading.

Reading is central to the school's revised curriculum. High-quality texts are used throughout the school to support pupils' learning.

Children successfully learn how to read using phonics in the Reception Year. They are well prepared for this learning through the wide range of stories, songs and rhymes that staff introduce them to in the school's Nursery class. As a result of this strong start, most pupils develop secure phonics knowledge by the end of Year 1.

These pupils develop fluency through practising with books that contain the sounds that they know.

The school provides additional support for pupils who find reading more difficult. However, a lack of accuracy in identifying the sounds that these pupils do not know hinders staff from providing the most effective support in the first instance.

These pupils often continue to struggle to be able to decode unfamiliar words in key stage 2. This limits their ability to access the rest of the curriculum with ease.

The school does not make sure that staff accurately identify the wide range of SEND that pupils at the school experience.

This makes it more difficult for teachers to provide the most effective support for these pupils to access the curriculum. As a result, some pupils with SEND do not achieve as well as they could.

The school supports all pupils well in their personal development.

Pupils learn how to develop safe and healthy relationships, including when they are online. They find out about people's views, lives and beliefs that might be different to their own. Pupils understand the importance of equality and what they can do to make sure that other people's opinions are valued and listened to.

These attributes prepare pupils well for living in a modern and diverse society when they are older.

Strong relationships permeate all aspects of school life. Pupils behave well in class and as they move around the school.

There are positive relationships between staff and those responsible for governance. Members of the trust and the local governing board check that new policies and procedures do not become overburdensome for staff.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Teachers do not consistently identify and address gaps in pupils' knowledge well enough, including in reading. This results in some pupils struggling to make sense of new information. The school should ensure that teachers check and take account of what pupils already know so that all pupils build up a rich body of knowledge that prepares them well for their next stages of learning.

• There is variability in how well teachers support pupils to practise and apply new learning to ensure that it is firmly embedded. As a result, some pupils struggle to recall key information. The school should support staff to improve the delivery of the curriculum so that pupils can acquire and secure knowledge over time.

• The school does not make sure that the needs of some pupils with SEND are accurately identified. This means that some pupils with SEND struggle to access the curriculum because, for these pupils, their teachers are unsure how best to support them. The school should equip teachers with the knowledge that they need to recognise and meet the differing needs of pupils in the school.

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