Moston Fields Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy being part of this warm, friendly and diverse school community.

They readily welcome new arrivals to the school. This includes pupils who join the school at various points after the early years, many of whom speak English as an additional language. Pupils are quick to celebrate differences between themselves and others.

They are encouraged to become considerate and tolerant young people.

Pupils live up to the school's high expectations for their behaviour by being ready, respectful and safe. They listen carefully and typically stay focused on their learning.

Pupils look forward to weekly assemblies where they are keen to be nominated for... pupil of the week or of the term. They wear their brightly coloured sweatshirts with genuine pride to celebrate this achievement.

The school wants pupils to be ready to fulfil their dreams and aspirations.

It has redesigned its curriculum to ensure that it is suitably ambitious for pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). An increasing number of pupils now meet the school's raised expectations for their academic success. However, weaknesses in the previous curriculum mean that some pupils do not achieve as well as they could.

They are not as well prepared for the next stage of their education as they should be.

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

The school has experienced recent instability in staffing, including in leadership. Despite this, it has continued to maintain strong and positive relationships at every level.

For example, the school has prioritised staff workload by ensuring that staff are given time to complete additional tasks. This has helped staff to feel valued, despite the current period of rapid school development.

Several members of the governing body are new to their roles.

Long-standing governors have ensured that newer members have the knowledge and expertise that they need to hold the school to account and to provide support when necessary.

The school has improved subject curriculums. They are logically ordered to help pupils to build their knowledge over time.

Teachers are increasingly skilled at spotting and addressing pupils' errors during lessons. However, at times, staff in the early years do not design learning sufficiently well to reinforce or extend children's knowledge and vocabulary. As a result, some children are not as equipped as they should be to embrace the challenges of the Year 1 curriculum.

The school is in the process of refining its assessment systems in several subjects. This prevents some teachers from accurately identifying and addressing gaps in pupils' knowledge. Despite the school's recently strengthened approach to improving pupils' attendance, many pupils are frequently absent from school.

This further hinders how well these pupils build their knowledge over time and prevents them from achieving as well as they should.The school identifies the additional needs of pupils, including those with SEND, quickly and accurately. Pupils with more complex needs, who spend part of their day learning in the school's Willow and Walnut classes, benefit from well-tailored support to help them access learning effectively.

Nonetheless, pupils with SEND experience the same shortcomings in the delivery of the curriculum as their peers. This means that some pupils with SEND do not achieve as well as they should.

The school's approach to teaching reading has improved considerably.

Reading is a priority within the curriculum, including in the early years. For example, staff ensure that high-quality texts link well to the different topics that pupils study. Pupils said that they enjoy reading and listening to their teachers read to them regularly.

Despite these improvements, some pupils have considerable gaps in their reading knowledge. The school has taken action to identify and address these gaps. This means pupils who have fallen behind in the phonics programme are beginning to catch up with their peers.

The school supports pupils well to recognise and regulate their emotions. Pupils behave well and have positive attitudes to their learning. They blossom in terms of their social and emotional development.

The school is keen to extend pupils' learning beyond the academic. A wide range of clubs and educational visits broaden pupils' experiences and capture their interests and talents. Pupils are proud of their leadership responsibilities, such as being members of the school council.

They prize the school's approach to teaching them about their rights and responsibilities. Pupils gain a mature understanding of the world around them and are well prepared to grow up in modern and diverse Britain.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In several subjects, weaknesses in the previous curriculum mean that pupils have gaps in their learning that teachers do not identify and address consistently well. This means that pupils, and children in the early years, are introduced to new concepts when previous learning is not secure. The school should ensure that gaps in learning are identified, and that pupils are helped to catch up.

• The activities that staff provide for children in the early years are not of a sufficiently high quality to enable children to learn well across the curriculum. This means that children in the early years do not make the progress they should. The school should support staff to engage children in well-chosen activities that sustain their thinking and deepen their knowledge and understanding.

Some pupils' attendance is not good enough. This causes gaps in learning to widen further. The school should build on their emerging strategies to secure good attendance, so that pupils attend school regularly.

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