Nettlestone Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils appreciate the school values that are known as 'mission possibles'.

The five missions are interwoven across all areas of school life and are used to teach pupils essential life skills, such as respect, resilience and making healthy choices. This helps pupils to make meaningful, appropriate decisions and understand how to behave as expected. As a result, pupils' behaviour is positive across the school and Year 6 leave well prepared for their next stage of education.

This is a caring school. Starting in the early years, relationships between adults and pupils are kind and respectful. This helps pupils to feel safe.

The school has high ambitions for pupil...s' achievement. Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), are supported well by adults in lessons, who help them to learn well across the curriculum.Pupils are proud to support a charity of their choice.

This starts with children in the pre-school making cakes, which they sell in the class shop to raise money. Pupils take on a variety of roles of responsibility. For example, 'Young Governors' work with the governing body on local issues, including road safety.

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

The school has designed an ambitious curriculum that is interesting and well sequenced. The school adapts the curriculum carefully to the context of the island location. Staff plan engaging trips and visits to embed and enrich the key learning.

In all subjects, staff have identified the most important knowledge that pupils need to learn from Year 1 onwards. This is still developing in the early years. The school has worked with the federation to ensure that staff have the training and resources to deliver the curriculum.

Teaching is effective. The school has ensured that staff have the expert subject knowledge they need. Teachers provide clear explanations, which means that pupils do not develop misconceptions.

They design activities that help pupils to revisit previous learning before they introduce the next step. In some subjects, staff do not check pupils' understanding with sufficient accuracy. As a result, in these subjects, pupils' recall is variable.

Reading is a priority and taught well. Staff are well trained. As soon as children enter the pre-school, they explore sounds through nursery rhymes and stories.

Pupils from Reception onwards have a daily phonics lesson that gradually builds their understanding over time. Teachers regularly check what sounds pupils know. This ensures that pupils read books matched to their phonics knowledge.

Pupils are supported to develop into fluent readers. In reading lessons further up the school, pupils read a variety of text extracts and answer questions to make sure they understand what they are reading. Throughout the school, pupils develop a joy of reading.

The school has high expectations for pupils with SEND. Staff use clear strategies in place to identify pupils with barriers to their learning. Teachers are skilled in adapting tasks to enable pupils with SEND to follow the same curriculum as their peers.

The school ensures that appropriate support and intervention helps pupils with SEND make progress through the curriculum.

School has high expectations of behaviour. Pupils are polite and well mannered.

They listen well to adults and to each other. This means that learning is rarely disrupted. Pupils are keen to come to school and attendance is generally in line with the national figures.

The school works well with individual families to promote good attendance.

Pupils' personal development is a strength of the school. The school maintains an unrelenting focus on pupils' learning beyond the academic and this is strongly underpinned by the 'mission possible' statements.

Pupils learn how to manage their finances and the importance of budgeting. Pupils talk confidently about mindfulness strategies. The 'Respect Squad', alongside two trained members of staff, support pupils to understand that it is important to speak out if they have a concern.

Pupils understand the importance of healthy eating. Year 6 research recipes to make sugar-free snacks after a visit from a local chef. Pupils learn about different faiths and religions.

The school uses technology so that pupils can take virtual tours. For example, they tour different places of worship to deepen their learning. Pupils understand the concepts of democracy, respect and tolerance.

They are well prepared for life in modern Britain.

Leaders at all levels work collaboratively for the benefit of pupils. The school provides helpful bespoke training for staff to support them with their responsibilities.

Governors provide effective support and challenge. Parents appreciate the care their children receive and the effective communication from the school.

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, teachers do not check carefully enough what pupils have learned and remembered. As a result, teaching does not consistently address gaps or build well enough on what came before. The school should ensure that teachers check routinely that key content has been learned, and use this information to inform future teaching.

• The curriculum in early years is not yet fully developed in some areas of learning. This means that children are not being supported to build knowledge and skills over time as effectively as they could be. The school must identify precisely what children should learn and in what order to be ready for their next stage of learning.