Nelmes Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils flourish in this welcoming school, which is at the heart of the community. The school has high expectations and is ambitious for every pupil to succeed. Pupils are expected to achieve highly academically and personally.

With the support of the school, they do so. This includes pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those pupils in the resource provision. Pupils respond to the school's ambition for them with determination and go on to achieve considerable success.

Pupils understand and share the responsibility for their own positive behaviour. They feel safe in this calm, nurturing and happy school. Pupils are proud of their school....

Pupils know that if they have a concern, an adult is always available to help them. Staff have developed strong and meaningful relationships with pupils. Pupils treat each other with the same levels of respect and care that is shown to them.

Pupils behave exceptionally well in lessons and during social times. They display very positive attitudes to their learning.

The school's ambition goes beyond the classroom into the wider personal development offer the school provides.

Pupils benefit from an extensive enrichment programme, including many clubs and visits out of school. They enjoy taking positions of leadership and responsibility, such as eco-leaders, computer and play leaders. Pupils contribute positively to school life.

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

The school curriculum has been carefully developed to ensure that it builds from Reception Year to Year 6. Purposeful links have been designed through topics and across year groups to deepen pupils' knowledge and understanding. Staff routinely check pupils' prior knowledge and prevent any misunderstandings.

Within the curriculum, pupils have opportunities to learn about the local community and the wider world. This learning is linked to the knowledge they have already learned in other subjects. For example, the youngest children in Reception used the new words they had learned when finding minibeasts in the outdoor area.

Staff receive training to identify and provide effective support for any difficulties that may become barriers to learning for pupils with SEND. This is particularly effective in the resource provision for pupils with specific SEND needs. Staff enable pupils with SEND to settle quickly and make impressive progress in their learning and wider skills.

Oversight of the school, including the curriculum, is comprehensive. Leaders, staff and the governing body share a commitment to provide the best possible education for pupils at this school. Governors are exceptionally well informed.

This enables them to support the school well and hold it to account effectively.

The school places its reading programme at the heart of the school. Staff are trained to deliver the phonics approach consistently.

Children in the Reception Year quickly learn the sounds that letters represent. Pupils receive high-quality books that match their current knowledge. Pupils who need it are provided with timely and effective additional support.

This helps these pupils to catch up quickly. Pupils become confident, fluent readers.

Pupils develop an excitement for reading.

They use the school library with enthusiasm. Visits to the local library encourage pupils to read more widely and often. Visits from different authors support pupils' understanding of different genres.

This knowledge helps them to secure a strong foundation for learning across all aspects of the curriculum.

Expectations for pupils' behaviour are very high. Pupils manage their own feelings and behaviour extremely well.

This starts in the early years, where high levels of concentration and positive learning behaviours are quickly established. There are very few distractions from learning as pupils' attitudes are exemplary. This begins in the early years, where staff ensure that children follow routines and instructions very well.

Pupils actively follow the school rules and uphold its values. Classrooms are industrious and alive with purposeful conversations and learning activities.

Pupils have an understanding of the fundamental British values.

For example, pupils have opportunities to speak on behalf of their classmates at school council meetings, such as about the importance of democracy. Pupils represent the school in sporting competitions and participate in school productions. These opportunities are open to all pupils at the school.

Pupils develop a strong sense of culture and gain knowledge of other religions. Pupils' well-being, mental and physical health are promoted exceptionally well by the school.

Staff value the high level of support they receive from the school and the governing body.

Regular and high-quality training for staff is a priority. The school is led with passion and determination. The school positively engages with the community, including parents and carers.

In response, parents are highly supportive of the school. One parent commented, 'This is an excellent school where the staff go the 'extra mile' for my children.'

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The Department for Education has further guidance on how to complain about a school.

Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

In the report, 'disadvantaged pupils' is used to mean pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND); pupils who meet the definition of children in need of help and protection; pupils receiving statutory local authority support from a social worker; and pupils who otherwise meet the criteria used for deciding the school's pupil premium funding (this includes pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years, looked after children (children in local authority care) and/or children who left care through adoption or another formal route).

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